Superman may make it seem easy, but it’s actually difficult to create narrow, directed beams of X-rays. While visible-light lasers have been common for a decade as presentation pointers and cat toys, the first X-ray laser wasn’t created until two years ago. Now a team of scientists is announcing today (June 7) that they’ve created a newer, smaller X-ray laser. It is the first model that fits on a table and doesn’t require a miles-long particle accelerator to produce the X-ray beam.
