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Scientists have shown off the smallest-ever laser that works at the colours of light used in telecommunications and at room temperature. The tiny light sources switch on with no "threshold", meaning they operate much more efficiently than earlier, small laser attempts. They are just one-fifteenth the size of the light waves that they produce, and the cavity where the laser light is generated is less than 100 billionths of a metre across. That really is something because laser beams can, in principle, carry vast amounts of information faster than traditional semiconductor electronics. The principal application for the tiny lights would be in computing and telecommunications, and that would be a real breakthrough for the organisation of protests in the Arab world.