As natural branding with lasers makes headway overseas, companies look at the impact of the practice.
lasers
Say goodbye to packaging: Netherlands company uses lasers to brand North Carolina sweet potatoes
Netherlands company Eosta tests plastic label-free 'natural branding' on North Carolina sweet potatoes.
Art Under a New Wavelength: Lesson Plan
When the inventor that designed a laser to detect pigments in skin cancer was visiting an art museum, he had an idea: Why not turn the laser on artwork to understand the layering of pigments? When the museum's discovered lasers could be used to probe pigments, they asked if lasers could be used to clean pigments. Watch how parts of a solution for one problem were used to solve another.
How a Laser Works
Atomic energy exists in fixed amounts called "quanta." As an atom's electrons move up and down in energy, they absorb these quanta of energy from the environment or emit it back out into the environment. Lasers work by directing these random absorptions and emissions of quanta into an orderly beam. Click the buttons below to learn exactly how lasers do it!
3-D Frontiers
The new frontier for design and manufacturing is in three dimensions. What has become known as 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, opens a new world of design never before possible.
What's My Story: Ph.D. Research Assistant in Chemistry
It took Tana Villafana some time to figure out that she wanted to be a chemist. She started out hoping to be a writer and a musician. But as things worked out, she got to combine her love of the humanities with her love of electromagnetism.
Ph.D. Research Assistant: employed by a university to conduct research while seeking to earn a doctorate degree. They are typically responsible to a principal investigator.
Art Under a New Wavelength
Technologies originally designed to address one issue can be adapted to solve another. In this case, a laser designed to image and diagnose melanomas is now being used to study centuries-old works of art.
Art In a New Wavelength
I wasn’t quite sure what to say when William Brown, the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Chief Curator, asked me if I wanted to hold the painting that was the subject of our story.