“ It is ironic now to think that in 1958 the year
that American researcher Charles Townes showed that a MASER could theoretically
be designed to operate in the visible spectrum of the spectrum, his colleagues informed
him "that his research would have no relevance to the actual world".
In 1958, the "hula hoops" were all the craze across Europe and Russian writer Boris Pasternek
declined the Nobel Prize in Literature as it was his fear that authorities would
remove him from Russia. I'm sure the world was drastically changed by the time Charles Townes
received the Nobel Prize in Physics four years afterward.
Today, lasers are used in every aspect of life which includes a growing number of cosmetic treatments, including rejuvenating the
skin to reduce wrinkles or acne-related scars the
removal of hair tattoos, removal of hair and
pigmented blemishes (age spots and moles) and treatment for
vein lesions (port wine stains and spider veins).In reality, the true story of
lasers was born a few years before. In 1917, the famous scientist Albert
Einstein postulated that atoms could be induced to emit tiny packets of energy called "photons," in his treatise "On the Theory of Quantum Radiation." This sentinel piece of physics created the basis to the concept of stimulated radiation emission, which was later used by the American physicist Gordon Gould to coin the term LASER.
In essence, the term is an abbreviation for the phrase light amplification caused by the stimulation of emission radiation.The period was around 1957 and it was 1957 and the Russians have just launched
Sputnik 1 into the skies over a horrified US nation. Senator
Lyndon Johnson spoke for the nation when he said "soon, they will be dropping bombs on us from space, like children dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses!".
The headlines in newspapers that day spoke of his
fears when one of them stated that "Soviet satellites circle the globe each 90 minutes".
In 1960, plans were made to start the race to the moon and
America was the first to enter a new age of political, technological, military and scientific advances.
The Government created the Pentagon's Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency and huge grants were given to private and public laboratories throughout the United States to fund the development of
a spacecraft and the first working laser.In 1960, their
efforts paid off as physicist Theodore Maiman working with the Hughes Electric Corporation in California, created the world's first operational Ruby laser. ”