China’s Superintense Laser Could Create Matter From Energy
The Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser is capable of producing 500 times the power of all the world's electrical grids combined. Here's what you need to know. Lasers Are Great, But...
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E = mc2, energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. We’ve demonstrated this to dramatic effect with nuclear bombs, converting a little mass into a lot of energy, but we’ve never done it the other way around and turned energy into mass. At least we haven’t done it… yet. When you think high energy, where does your mind go? That’s right, to Trace. But after that, probably lasers. And lasers are getting extremely powerful. The current record-holding laser resides in China, at the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility. In 2016 it set the bar at 5.3 million billion Watts of power, or 5.3 Petawatts. Even though that’s a lot of power, it doesn’t last very long. Power is energy over time, so there are two ways to make these super p...
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E = mc2, energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. We’ve demonstrated this to dramatic effect with nuclear bombs, converting a little mass into a lot of energy, but we’ve never done it the other way around and turned energy into mass. At least we haven’t done it… yet. When you think high energy, where does your mind go? That’s right, to Trace. But after that, probably lasers. And lasers are getting extremely powerful. The current record-holding laser resides in China, at the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility. In 2016 it set the bar at 5.3 million billion Watts of power, or 5.3 Petawatts. Even though that’s a lot of power, it doesn’t last very long. Power is energy over time, so there are two ways to make these super p...
