Lasers have been a staple of sci-fi and children’s entertainment for well over a century. In H. G. Wells’s 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, the Martian invaders deploy heat rays. The crew of the starship Enterprise has been firing phaser guns since the 1960s, and the plot of the first Star Wars movie (several Star Wars movies, actually) centers on the race to destroy a planet-annihilating superlaser. When Buzz Lightyear crash-lands in Andy’s room at the beginning of Toy Story, the other toys are captivated by his (fake) laser gun. “It’s not a laser,” Woody says dismissively. “It’s a—it’s a little light bulb that blinks.”