Other Definitions
particle beam (dict)
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Particle BeamA particle beam is an accelerated stream of atoms or subatomic particles (moving at or very near the speed of light) directed by magnets and focused by lenses. A natural analog to particle beams is lightning, where electrons flow from negatively charged clouds to positively charged clouds or the earth. Though particle beams are perhaps most famously employed as weapon systems in Science Fiction (e.g. "phasers" in Star Trek), the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (now called DARPA) started work on particle beam weapons as early as 1958 http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1984/jul-aug/roberds.html, two years before the first scientific demonstration of Lasers.
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