Probably a stupid question, but will we ever have something like a microwave to make things cold? Is there a reason this can't exist?

Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 486 points –
241

You are viewing a single comment

There are actually two ways to do this. One is a heat pump (like a small ac or an electric cooling plate) the issue is that it would heat up on the other side, so not great.

The other option is actually really interesting as just like a microwave it uses radio waves (in this case lasers) to cool things by shooting the atoms in a way that negates their current movment and slows them down.

Oh, so that's why when I shot someone they got cold! Silly me. I'm a reverse microwave, not a murderer duh

Came here to mention laser cooling; glad someone else got there first.