The laser was invented in 1960, and it’s used today in everything from CDs to laser pointers. But now US scientists have created the first “antilaser,” which can trap and cancel out a laser’s beam. This device works “like running a laser backwards,” Yale University’s A. Douglas Stone told Reuters, although it could be converted into electrical energy. The device will probably be used in next generation, high performance computers powered by light and electrical energy, he said. The antilaser could not be used as a potential laser shield, he noted. His findings appear in the journal Science.