[ExI] mosquitos again

spike spike66 at att.net
Tue Mar 17 00:14:07 UTC 2009


spike wrote:  
 
Cool!  About ten years ago in this forum I posted about using SDI-derived
raster laser technology to detect and slay mosquitos.  Looks like a group of
Royal Smart Persons figured out a way to do it:
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680870885500701.html
 
spike
 
 
 
 
Eugene Leitl posted me offlist reminding me he posted on the topic of using
lasers to zap mosquitoes in the late 80s, about 6 years before I began
lurking on ExI-chat.  Turns out there is a directed energy weapon aiming
technique that uses a two axis fast steering mirror to create a lissajous
pattern in a given area.
 
http://www.jmargolin.com/mtest/LJfigs.htm
 
It was pioneered in the 1980s as a way to shoot down incoming missiles with
a directed energy beam, or with particle beam weapons.  We may see such a
thing in action soon if the Iranians decide to fire missiles at Israel.  Let
us fondly hope not.
 
Be that as it may, the light source traces a lissajous pattern on a given
area in the sky and examines the return signal.  From this it determines
what is the object in the sky, and if it is an incoming missile (or in
another application a mosquito) it sends a mighty flash of light at the
object.
 
If you lie nekkid in the sun for ten minutes, you may get the start of a
nice tan, but even the chalkiest doughboys among us would be unlikely to get
a sunburn in ten minutes.  Yet if you received that same dose of solar flux
in one tenth of a second, you would be unlikely to survive, for it would
ruin your skin and raise your body temperature quickly.  Likewise, the
amount of energy in a typical camera flash is plenty to slay a mosquito if
we manage to get it all on her simultaneously to raise her body temperature
30C.  The article above doesn't say, but I can imagine using SDI tech to
identify and shoot down individual mosquitoes.
 
spike
 
 
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