Scientists at NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Japan have boldly gone where no man has gone before by successfully constructing the world's first true "phaser," an emission of sound waves similar to a laser but without the aid of light. As Wired points out, the word "laser" stands for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," therefore these new sound-based devices, utilizing particles called phonons, might aptly be termed "phasers" as it is far too tempting to not compound the term "phonon laser" into a single word.

While phonon lasers first made waves - if you will pardon the pun - in 2010, when researchers at Johns Hopkins pioneered the technology , this development marks the first time that they have been made to work without relying on a conventional photon-based laser to direct the emission of phonons. Imran Mahboob, co-author of the paper that appeared in Physical Review Letters detailing the research that went into developing these phonon lasers, said: "In our work, we got rid of this optical part" so that their technology is "much easier to integrate into other applications and devices.”Although a thousand Trekkies just punched the air, it might be best to keep that Captain Kirk cosplay in storage until the next convention. Phonon lasers will likely prove to have a variety of practical uses, none of which involve apprehending antagonistic Klingons with your phaser set to stun. The technology is still in its infancy and it currently requires further research into how to properly harness the beams to make them useful. Once that leap has been made, phonon lasers will probably be used in the fields of medicine, electronics, and scientific research. But with this new development in laser technology opening up a new world of possibilities, we suggest you kick back and pour yourself a Romulan ale because the future is exceptionally nigh.

Melissa Grey had a jolly good time squeezing as many Star Trek: TOS references into this post as she possibly could. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey