This one is a topic I commented recently on aByte Show interview, and that is the US military's new "plasma cannon," and I thought it would be worth a more detailed look here. Here is Russian TV that brings you this bit of news: US Army to smite enemies with Tesla-like lightning bolts? The basic idea here is very simple. The laser acts as a conductive channel for a plasma, or, an electrically charged gas, toward its target.  The laser heats a gas, ionizing the air through which it passes, and thus creates a column or channel taht is not electrically neutral. In other words, the column … [Read more...]