
APS's most recent comic series, Spectra, takes its name from the comic's heroine, who has all the superpowers of a laser. The idea was to create a comic for Laserfest that would educate a middle school to high school audience about the yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser. In the past, APS had done comics that used historical figures in physics (i.e. PhysicsQuest), but the history of the laser is too complex for that. An enormous amount of controversy surrounds its origins even a half century later.
To avoid all that, APS designed spectra to make the science and history of lasers accessible to younger audiences with a colorful comic book storyline complete with heroes and villains. She can fly, cut through metal, diffract, refract, reflect and because excited lasers are blue and low-energy lasers are red, Spectra changes color based on how much energy she has. She can even play CDs with her bare hands.
Through the rest of the week I'll bring you all updates about the insanity and how Spectra's doing; I'll try to push my way into the Tron, Hobbit and Megamind previews; fill you in on what XCOR Aerospace says will be the future in NewSpace; sneak you some insights on the new BSG movie; report on abusing the sci in scifi with Phil Plait; and I'll attempt to snap a few paparazzi shots of Angelina Jolie and Jeff Bridges.

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