Lasers are cool. But why in the world would you want a solar laser? For one simple reason: to generate energy.

Here's the theory: these solar lasers heat up sea-water, which contains a lot of magnesium. This process gives off heat-which can be used to power turbines to generate electricity, and hydrogen-which can be used to power a hydrogen-powered car. The process also creates magnesium oxide, which could easily be turned into magnesium by using the laser.

They're talking about getting the process to the point where it can generate up to 400 watts of power, which is barely enough to power my desktop computer. It's a start, but we need about, oh several billion times that. However, one school of thought says we only need 92 square miles of solar panels to power all of the USA.

Via Gizmodo, Technology Review