UW Scientists Invent Laser That Can Refrigerate Liquid Water

[NSA TORTURE TECHNOLOGY, NEWS and RESEARCH]

http://stgist.com/2015/11/uw-scientists-invent-laser-that-can-refrigerate-liquid-water-5766

UW Scientists Invent Laser That Can Refrigerate Liquid Water

MATT DAYO

November 22, 2015


University of Washington scientists say they’ve found a way to
refrigerate liquid water using infrared laser.

Since the invention of lasers more than 50 years ago, they’ve almost
if not always given off heat. We also see lasers in science fiction
movies and television series as weapons that can melt metals or a
whole building, or destroy a spacecraft larger than a city in outer
space.

Now, scientists in the real world say there’s a way to use lasers to
cool things down.

A new UW study published in the journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences last week revealed that a team of UW researchers
has used an infrared laser to cool liquid water by about 36 degrees
Fahrenheit (or about 20 degrees Celsius) — and they say it’s a “major
breakthrough” in the field. Imagine in the not so distant future,
we’ll see our fridge with cool lasers, or buildings with safe lasers
that can lower the room temperature.

Senior author Peter Pauzauskie says in the science fiction world, like
in the Star Wars franchise, lasers “heat things up.” Pauzauskie a UW
assistant professor of materials science and engineering, says their
research is the first to show a laser beam that will refrigerate
liquids including water under everyday conditions.

Dr. Pauzauskie and his team chose infrared light for their cooling
laser invention with “biological applications” in mind (and not for
the development of future freeze guns). They demonstrated that the
infrared laser could refrigerate saline solution and cell culture
media that are commonly used in genetic and molecular studies.

The UW team used a material commonly available in commercial lasers
but essentially ran the laser phenomenon in reverse. They illuminated
a single microscopic crystal suspended in liquid water with infrared
laser light to excite a unique kind of glow that has slightly more
energy than that amount of light absorbed.

This higher-energy glow carries heat away from both the crystal and
the liquid water surrounding it.

Before their successful testing, it was really an open question as to
whether this could be done because normally, “water warms when
illuminated,” Pauzauskie adds.

Bar my examples above, researchers believe that this breakthrough
could help the microprocessor industry, including computers, tablets,
smartphones and so on. Manufacturers of such devices could use this
technology to “point cool” tiny areas.

So imagine devices in the not so distant future with laser beams that
can cool specific components inside to prevent overheating.

Researchers at UW also said medicine research could use cooling laser
beam. For instance, scientists could one day cool a portion of a cell
as it divides or repairs itself — essentially slowing these rapid
processes down. It could give researchers the opportunity to see how
the process works. Plus, researchers of neurons could cool a single
neuron in a network, essentially silencing without damaging it, and
see how its neighbors bypass it and rewire themselves.

The infrared laser refrigeration process was first demonstrated in
vacuum conditions at Los Alamos National Laboratory twenty years ago,
and only this year that researchers demonstrated this process in
liquid water.

Like other inventions, this laser refrigeration process is currently
quite energy intensive, but Dr. Pauzauskie said future research will
focus on making this process more energy efficient. Also, the UW team
has only demonstrated the cooling effect with a single nanocrystal.

This research is titled “Laser refrigeration of hydrothermal
nanocrystals in physiological media” and its early edition is
available online via the PNAS website.

Credit: Featured image above is not the actual infrared laser used.
It’s for presentation only. To see the actual laser in action, visit
the UW website.

[Poutnik]

On 11/27/2015 08:46 AM, NSA TORTURE TECHNOLOGY, NEWS and RESEARCH wrote:
>
>
> http://stgist.com/2015/11/uw-scientists-invent-laser-that-can-refrigerate-liquid-water-5766
>
> UW Scientists Invent Laser That Can Refrigerate Liquid Water
>
> MATT DAYO
>
> November 22, 2015
>
>
> University of Washington scientists say they’ve found a way to
> refrigerate liquid water using infrared laser.
>
> Since the invention of lasers more than 50 years ago, they’ve almost
> if not always given off heat. We also see lasers in science fiction
> movies and television series as weapons that can melt metals or a
> whole building, or destroy a spacecraft larger than a city in outer
> space.
>
> Now, scientists in the real world say there’s a way to use lasers to
> cool things down.

Laser cooling is already well known,
even if used usually just very close to 0 K.


--
Poutnik ( the Czech word for a wanderer )

[benj]

This is slightly better than the Wormley cut and pastes, but allow me to
note that they are NOT cooling water with a laser! They are cooling "a
single microscopic crystal suspended in liquid water" that in turn cools
the water. The media bullshit is like saying in my refrigerator I use
electricity to cool water! Well yes... but really NO!

Laser cooling as noted has been known for a long time.

Never believe ANYTHING interpreted for you by a journalist. They all
flunked science if they took it at all.

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