Sensible Erection

Thursday, 16 August 2012

quote [ Researchers have shown off a microwave-emitting version of the laser, called a maser, that works at room temperature. ]

SensiPoll: So which Trek device will be realised first - the Phaser or Tricorder?

[sci&tech] [by Ateball@3:44pmGMT] [+7 Interesting]

Comments

rangerx said @ 4:02pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
The optimist in me wishes for the tricorder.

The pessimist knows it will be the phaser.

todde said @ 6:23pm GMT on 16th Aug
The realist in me knows it will be the Spy Ray

Naruki said @ 4:24am GMT on 17th Aug
The farmer in me says Tractor Beam!

astropig7 said @ 1:17pm GMT on 17th Aug
It runs on Deerelithium crystals!

GordonGuano said @ 4:02pm GMT on 16th Aug
Was it ever canonically established just what phasers did? You could set them to stun, sometimes they disintegrated things, sometimes they put holes in things, and I remember reading a story where an away team stays alive on a freezing planet by heating a rock wall with them. There may also have been dessert topping and floor polish settings.

Eh, whatevs. I'd still rather have a bowel disruptor. Do you really need another setting than "fatal intestinal maelstrom"?

sanepride said @ 4:41pm GMT on 16th Aug
I remember an episode where Scotty used a phaser as a torch to cut through a bulkhead.

ckfahrenheit said @ 4:50pm GMT on 16th Aug
I think Rand used it to heat up the coffee?

GordonGuano said @ 5:12pm GMT on 16th Aug
Possibly, possibly. I'm just starting to work my way through TOS flavor and half the production budget must have gone to her hair stylist. As KingPellinore noted elsewhere, you could play chess on it.

sanepride said @ 7:28pm GMT on 16th Aug
Yes. I definitely remember that.

McCoy: I thought power was out in the galley.
Rand: I used a hand phaser and zap, hot coffee!

Obviously Yeoman Rand was very capable with a hand phaser.

granitewitch said @ 9:09pm GMT on 16th Aug
And Grace Lee Whitney turned out to be very capable with more than just her hands...

insanemonkey said @ 5:39pm GMT on 16th Aug

arrowhen said @ 6:04pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:2 Informative]

Originally (from the production notes to TOS), the Phaser was a PHoton mASER, since at the time of writing the Laser was a relative unknown, and powers were not expected to be very great. Masers, on the other hand, were already very powerful machines which produce very destructive radiation pulses. The term "phaser" has since been revised as a backronym for PHASed Energy Rectification, though from a physics standpoint even this is of equal semantic content—ordinary incoherent light is not "rectified", or synchronous, whereas Lasing and Masing emissions are rectified, or synchronous. Phasers release a beam of fictional subatomic particles called "rapid nadions", which are then refracted ('rectified') through superconducting crystals. Given the nature of photons the first acronym seems more accurate.

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weapons_in_Star_Trek#Energy_weapons

Tirade said @ 4:09pm GMT on 16th Aug
Phaser is a weapon of war. Tricorder is a medical tool.

Of course the Phaser will happen first.

happyman said @ 4:41pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
Interesting you say that, there is a contest currently ongoing for a 10 million dollar prize to the first creator of a tool that can diagnose ailments as well as a board certified doctor.

http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/

lilmookieesquire said @ 8:17pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:5 Funny]
Interesting you say that, there is currently a 100 billion dollar contract to the first creator of a tool that can vaporize mammals.

http://www.defense.gov/

(zing!)

ckfahrenheit said @ 5:42am GMT on 17th Aug
I expect they'll need the tricorder invent0red very soon afterwards.

I don't know which ST gadget I'd like first; me, it's a tossup between holosuite & replicator.

ckfahrenheit said @ 4:52pm GMT on 16th Aug
smartphones will be tricorders in a couple of years worth of apps

moriati said @ 5:26pm GMT on 16th Aug
+1 Maz0rs ... ?

spite48 said @ 6:14pm GMT on 16th Aug
I agree that basic tricorders aren't that far off given the state of smart phones and other hand held electronic devices and airport/medical scanning technology.

But, not for a lack of trying and spending to get directed energy weapons into practical use.

I've seen older weapon tests which show relatively slow damage by lasers

Will a Faraday cage prevent all damage from a mazer?
Is it theoretically possible to have a hand held mazer that can deal lethal damage to a mammal without connecting to a larger power source?

Spaceloaf said @ 12:45am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
My guess is that a Faraday cage would indeed stop the rays from moving any farther. However, the energy itself still has to go somewhere (think about when you put metal in the microwave).

If a mazer powerful enough to vaporize things was shot at the cage, I'd imagine it would heat up quite quickly and melt down unless it was one super-beefy cage. In other-words, you won't be mazer-proof just by wearing an ESD suit.

(Just like if you shot a high-power laser at a mirror, the mirror would reflect it, but it would also melt as the temperature increased.)

happiest_sadist said @ 9:05pm GMT on 17th Aug
I think if you had one cage inside another, with the outer cage electrically isolated other than a connection to the inner cage with a diode in the middle and a connection from inner cage to a load or to ground, you could use it as a rectenna.

damnit said @ 7:21pm GMT on 16th Aug

granitewitch said @ 8:26pm GMT on 16th Aug
The problem with phasers (and other hand-held energy weapons like light sabres) is that you have to carry around a vast amount of stored energy in a tiny package. That sort of energy density would make me nervous just to be near one. I mean, think of how long it takes a 1500W microwave to boil water using household current. Vaporizing something in less than a second? And doing it several times in a fight? You're talking about as much energy as a small atomic bomb. I don't know about you, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to walk around with that strapped to my ass.

sanepride said @ 9:14pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
Just don't cross the streams.

eIfish said @ 9:40pm GMT on 16th Aug
But couldn't the same be said of the humble magazine?

eIfish said @ 9:46pm GMT on 16th Aug
I, for one, would be delighted if my smartphone had such an energy density.

spite48 said @ 10:58pm GMT on 16th Aug
How much energy would a maser take to scramble someone's brain? I say it's time to break out the tinfoil hats.

mechanical contrivance said @ 12:46am GMT on 17th Aug
You're not supposed to put metal in the maser.

ENZ said @ 5:51am GMT on 17th Aug
Just once I'd like some sci-fi movie or show that uses energy weapons have the balls to demonstrate it would really look like. It's always a burst of sparks and a little scorch mark, which I suppose works if they have budget constraints or are gunning for a more family-friendly rating. But dammit, I want to see a fucker burst into flames or explode like a hotdog in a microwave!

Khafra said @ 2:11am GMT on 17th Aug
Woohoo, I can share wifi with my brother who lives a mile away, and the FCC will be none the wiser!

...My dreams have gotten a little bit prosaic over the years.

somethingnew said @ 5:48am GMT on 17th Aug
I saw this project on Boing Bong months ago. I thought it was pretty much right in line with the spirit of the device. Tricorder Project

JohnIan said @ 7:24am GMT on 17th Aug
But the tricorder already exist... sort of.

I remember seeing the ad inside an old issue of Starlog magazine.

TR-107 Tricorder Mark 1 came out in 1996. I recall it being expensive.

It featured; electromagnetic field meter, barometer, light meter, thermometer, timer and clock along with colorimeter. Made by Vital Technologies.