Lightsabers: Almost here!

[OverdrivePrime]

So, not quite a lightsaber, but it's a military-issue handheld plasma blade. Pretty close, eh?

I'm just itching for them to size up the tech on these a bit. :thumbs:

America's top-secret elite commando forces have been field-testing a "plasma knife" - a handheld unit which generates a cutting "blade" of glowing ions.

Disappointingly for any wouldbe kimono-clad combat mystics out there, the handheld energy cutlass isn't intended for hand to hand combat and can't be used for parrying directed-energy-weapons fire. Rather, it's a surgical tool - intended to let combat medics cut into stricken buddies without worrying about bleeding, as the plasma blade seals off blood vessels as it slices through flesh.

 

[Blade Dancer]

I want a lightsaber!

But a plasma scalpel would be ok, too. Just to have on my shelf so I could look at it.

 

[Aoiblue]

We need pictures of this...

 

[Mang0TarD]

Pics or it didn't happen.

No, but seriously, that sounds awesome. That'll totally further the medical field by a lot and I'm really curious to see it in an actual surgical setting.

 

[Bolt]

Bullshit.

 

[Izzy]

Moar like "Lightshank" amirite!?

...

I had to...

 

[Midori Ken]

Isn't this just a medical blowtorch?

 

[OverdrivePrime]

No, it uses a plasma arc rather than burning gas, and it's tuned so that it's a very precise cutting surface rather than a clumsier, rounded area that you'd get from a torch.

While plasma scalpels have been around since 1976, this is a much more refined version than what has been available to military doctors up to now.

 

[Chronotia Archzenom]

Nice but I demand for a "real lightsaber" and may the blade be blue.

 

[Keith Justice]