Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Turning Light into Sound

A laser system generates underwater acoustic waves.
September 8, 2009

Researchers at the United States Naval Research Laboratory are developing laser acoustic technology that works underwater. It could make for better underseas acoustic imaging, and be used for remote communications between aircraft and underwater hardware and vessels because the signals can travel from the air into the water without degrading.

A green laser being tested at the Naval Research Lab ionizes the water when it strikes, generating acoustic waves. Credit: Navy Research Lab

According to a press release from the Navy, the laser light–generated using a commercial laser–ionizes a small area of water, which superheats, creating an explosion of steam that generates pulses of sound waves at about 220 decibels.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it

Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.

How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language

For decades, coders wrote critical systems in C and C++. Now they turn to Rust.

ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like.

New large language models will transform many jobs. Whether they will lead to widespread prosperity or not is up to us.

Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?

An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.