Printer toner could become recyclable and paper shredding come to an end, now a doctoral project has demonstrated that paper can be cleaned of print using lasers.

Probing the heart of a nuclear weapon explosion or igniting an artificial sun to power the world – these are the activities that super lasers are energising.

Mobile phone cameras used to be a bit of a gimmick when mobile phones were still used primarily for making phone calls. They’re now rather impressive and also ubiquitous, to the point where some of the most arresting images of world events – the tsunami in Japan and the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising, to name a couple – were taken by mobile phones.

There was a time when displays had to be rigid. Now, with the advent of light-emitting polymers and electronic paper technology, flexible displays are coming onto the market and enabling new applications like flexible signage and eReaders. But what if we went one step further? What if displays were not only flexible, but also stretchable? Is stretchability in a display necessary? Surely flexibility is enough for most applications?

The story of Laservision can be traced back to 1973, when corrective eyewear manufacturer Rupp & Hubrach started making laser safety eyewear. Until then, with the laser little more than a decade old, there had been no need for such a product, and Rupp & Hubrach became pioneers in the field.