The first time I read about this process, I was convinced aliens were involved. Seriously, it's one of those crazy pitch meeting things that sounds ridiculous so of course it was green lit. "So we fire this laser, pew pew, into a field of molten tin droplets, and bingbangflam, you get this flash of light. So what do you think?" Hold my beer.

It's clearly some people that are very smart that can only be explained by aliens