Laser device's dark origin

• Source: Global Times
• [08:26 August 06 2010]
• Comments

Brent Grocholski, a post-doctoral scholar at MIT's department of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, doubted the claims of serious danger posed by the product. "The biggest risks are eye damage and skin irritation," he told the Global Times. "There's no danger of idiots having 'lightsaber' fights - it would be like fighting with flashlights."

The location of Wicked Lasers is also a mystery, with the company's website listing addresses in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The Global Times visited the headquarters in Shanghai only to find them occupied by a company selling massage equipment. Staff there claimed their company had been based at that address for over 10 years and had never heard of any company that sold lasers.

Another address in the same complex was listed in a job advert by Wicked Lasers. However, it housed an office without an official name where staff also claimed they knew nothing about Wicked Lasers.

Liu told the Global Times that Wicked Lasers' office is in Hong Kong, and they have a few factories in unspecified Shanghai districts. When asked about the discrepancy between the website addresses and location of the factories, he would only reiterate that they are "in a few Shanghai districts."

Grocholski also had bad news for aspiring Jedi knights seeking an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. "The lightsaber is really ridiculous from a physics standpoint, because these are beams of electromagnetic radiation with no terminal point," he said. "These light beams would just cut through other beams of light, not cut off people's hands."