The Laser Turns 50 74
sonicimpulse writes with news that tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of physicist Theodore Maiman's creation of the first operational laser.
"Theodore Maiman made the first laser operate on 16 May 1960 at the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. He promptly submitted a short report of the work to the journal Physical Review Letters, but the editors turned it down. Some have thought this was because the Physical Review had announced that it was receiving too many papers on masers — the longer-wavelength predecessors of the laser — and had announced that any further papers would be turned down. But Simon Pasternack, who was an editor of Physical Review Letters at the time, has said that he turned down this historic paper because Maiman had just published, in June 1960, an article on the excitation of ruby with light, with an examination of the relaxation times between quantum states, and that the new work seemed to be simply more of the same. Pasternack's reaction perhaps reflects the limited understanding at the time of the nature of lasers and their significance."
Happy Birthday Laser! (Score:5, Funny)
Yet...a string of dissapointments (Score:5, Funny)
Still no succesful integration with friggin' sharks... :(
50 years, and still no portable death ray. (Score:5, Funny)
Hey laser (Score:5, Funny)
It's amazing, you don't look a day ove....
Oww, my eye!
Re:Hey laser (Score:4, Funny)
It's amazing, you don't look a day ove....
Oww, my eye!
Which no doubt spawned the usual "Do not look into laser beam with remaining eye" warning.
Re:Hey laser (Score:5, Funny)
I had a laser shot into my eye to reduce a blister on my retina (central serous retinopathy). It was all high tech, except they need to keep your head still while they press this apparatus against your eye. They had a frame to press your face against, but I could not hold myself still while they did that. The doctor supplemented the laser with a gorilla like nurse to pin my head to the frame with his hands.
Not the most dignified procedure, but it worked.
Re:Happy Birthday Laser! (Score:2, Funny)
but would you mind not pointing yourself at my eye's... You know you cause permanent damage. Maybe just point yourself at the floor and get the dog to chase after the spot...
Re:Happy Birthday Laser! (Score:2, Funny)
>> You're a good friend and I wish you all the best for the future.
P.S. You're really f-in' old!
Re:50 years, and still no portable death ray. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sorry, just one more science fiction joke (Score:3, Funny)
2012: 50 year birthday for the visible-spectrum LED, without which no advanced machines could be build!
And without those making the serious computers, with a wall of blinking lights, would be so much harder...
Re:50 years, and still no portable death ray. (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but aside from hi-def films, DVDs, CDs, cutting tools, holograms, spectroscopy, acne cures, hair removal, LIDAR, surgical tools and the barcode scanner, what has the laser ever done for us?