The laser is meant to be used to investigate the method of inertial confinement fusion called fast ignition. It is focused onto a target being simultaneously imploded by another larger laser to achieve thermonuclear ignition (hopefully). the wikipedia article on ICF explains most of how this works.

That is a lot of work packed into less than 2 minutes. Worth a look for sure.

Very industrious piano-playing and classical laser construction. Hate to imagine what happens to a ladybug lasered by a petawatt.

I work on this laser. It's amazing to see up close and personal.

Laser fusion! sounds epic!

This isn't really about a laser, they are creating a fusion reaction which requres a huge multi-laser assembly.

Imagine this:

Great song choice!

nice laserpointer! going to use this on my next presentation

its essentially a big ass laser toy that scientists gets to play with .

with all that moving, wonder why is the floor still so damn clean!!!

That is some pretty clever people there!

@10mintwo I happen to be a pimple faced teenager, but I do appreciate these kind of things.

yes, all of that is possible with this laser. start at the wikipedia article "inertial confinement fusion".

can this burn through a building in seconds?