A new kind of laser captures light just like some colorful bird feathers. The device mimics the nanoscale structure of colorful feathers to make high-intensity laser light with almost any color.

Lasers work by trapping light in or near a material that can emit more photons with the same wavelength, or color. Incoming photons excite the atoms in the material, and make them spit out more identical photons. But to get enough photons for a bright beam of laser light, the photons need to hang around in the material for a long time.

One way to buy time for photons is by forcing them to bounce back...

Behold the Samsung Infuse and its 4.5-inch display. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

When it comes to smartphones, how big is too big?

Samsung obviously isn’t preoccupied with that question, as evidenced by its latest Android device release, the Infuse 4G.

As soon as you pop the phone out of the box, the first thing you notice is its size. The thing is massive. It needs to be, though, in order to support its 4.5-inch super AMOLED display. Save for the first Dell Streak smartphone-cum-tablet hybrid — whose screen is a whopping 5-inches — the Infuse is packing one of the largest screens we’ve seen on...