I think many people don’t understand how and why lasers and optics are important in our lives. We all probably know about CD readers and laser hair removal, but there are a myriad of applications and uses for lasers that are surprising and important. Here is a list of a few developing applications over the past few years, which even managed to surprise me!
Cleaning up beach trash -> Atlantic article
Marking fruits and vegetables -> Guardian article
Detecting Nuclear materials -> UMich article
Sensing their surroundings -> Physics Today article
Detecting earthquakes -> Physics Today article
Vaporizing space debris -> Physics Today article – Futurism article
Unearthing lost cities -> NPR article
Protecting olives from diseases -> Guardian article
Powering tiny robots -> Redbull article
Detecting water leaks -> TimesLIVE article
Measuring the height of Antarctica -> phys.org article
Protecting crops from birds -> NPR article – Poultryworld article
Killing sea lice on farmed salmon -> Salmonbusiness article
Saving male chicks from being culled -> Physicsworld article
Detecting ripe avocados -> Newatlas article
Getting rid of pesky weeds -> LaserZentrum Hannover article
Which of these was the most surprising for you?