Laser ‘billion times brighter’ than sun

A laser has produced the most dazzling light ever made on Earth – one billion times brighter than the surface of the sun, say scientists in America.

The extreme brightness sparked a phenomenon never seen before, unique X-rays that could be used for supersensitive medical scans and security systems. They could form the basis of low-dose but highly sensitive 3D X-ray scans for tracking down elusive tumours or mapping the molecular landscape of nanoscale materials, said the team in Nebraska.