So, you’ve got an x-ray laser that, when pointed at matter, can heat it up to 2 million degrees in a trillionth of second. In other words, you can flash fry anything that gets in your way.
Stanford, are you sure it’s the Department of Energy backing this, and not DARPA?
Worries about flash-frying lasers aside, the Linac Coherent Light Source is actually pretty awesome, and was recently used to…heat up a piece of aluminum foil. If that sounds unimpressive, consider that at 2 million degrees, that foil turns into plasma, and an X-ray laser can then probe it to help scientists better understand how plasma works in the wild. If you’re wondering why we might possibly need to comprehend solid plasmas…think stars.
You’re still thinking about it being a death ray, aren’t you?
image courtesy Stanford University