Recently the European Commission approved the construction of three high powered research laser. The primary purpose of these lasers is to search for theoretical particles. They are hoping to build a fourth laser that could potentially "tear apart the vacuum of space-time" to reveal the matter and anti-matter within.
The fourth laser, that will be located at the ELI-Ultra High Field Facility, will combine 10 beams into 200 petawatt pulses that will only last 1.5 x 10^-14 second. This is 100,000 times the power of the world electric grid in a tiny fraction of a second. This fourth laser could produce a new understanding of particle physics, nuclear physics, gravitational physics, nonlinear field theory, ultrahigh-pressure physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
It is still unclear if this will produce anything more than a massive electric bill, but the nearly 40 research and academic institutions involved in the project seem optimistic.
For more info: ELI
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