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There used to be a column inside thew back page of the New Scientist, featuring inventions of "my friend Daedalus". One of his inventions was to use plant trop
by denton-scratch 4y ago
There used to be a column inside thew back page of the New Scientist, featuring inventions of "my friend Daedalus".
One of his inventions was to use plant tropins to regulate the growth of tree tissue, so that the trees grow in the shape of furniture.
Another of Daedalus's schemes was to focus two beams of ultraviolet laser light at the same point in the air, the frequencies of the two lasers chosen to interfere at a resonant frequency of nitrogen or oxygen, causing the gas to emit light. Suggested use: cable-free overhead street lighting.
- swayvil 4y agoThat second one would make a nice 3d display. Are tunable uv lasers a thing?
- denton-scratch 4y agoIt's always lodged in my mind, that one. It sounds plausible, but if it were actually possible presumably someone would have patented it. Oh - except, Daedalus is prior art! Could you do that? Could you get two lasers to interfere at a frequency that excites Oxygen, so that if you intersect the beams it emits visible light? I imagine Oxygen emission light would be bluish, right? So you could get a bluish 3d display in principle, with scanned 3d UV lasers. I suppose you could get a richer gamut, but you might have to inject some more interesting elements into the display gas. Also, this 3d display wouldn't be suitable for close-up viewing; I'm not sure I'd want to risk getting too close to a battery of scanned UV lasers.
- swayvil 4y agoYou might do it in a tank full of the easiest gas possible. A fishtank full of neon or something.