50 years of the laser
JAN 19, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024016
washingtonpost.com : This year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the laser . Like many a transformative development, it was met initially with thunderous public indifference. A number of techno-pundits regarded the upstart gizmo as basically a glorified parlor trick, a “solution looking for a problem,” as Charles Townes , who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering the idea, later wrote.Half a century later, lasers check out our groceries, read and write CDs and DVDs, guide commercial aircraft, enable eye surgery and dental repairs, target weapons, provide worldwide communications, survey the planet, print documents, cut fabric for clothing and metal for tools, make powerful pointers for PowerPoint slides and are now poised to ignite nuclear fusion, among scores of other uses. Related news story The laser turns 50: A birthday bash NPR
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
