Note from the Editor

This Birthday Is Giving Us Excitations

Auric Goldfinger used it to try and slice James Bond in half. Dr Evil threatened to aim one at the White House. It was the quintessential weapon of mass destruction in countless science fiction movies. It also has left its mark in the real world, and in much more positive ways. I am talking about the laser, of course, which turns 50 in May. Scientific and photonics associations will be marking this milestone throughout the year at LaserFest activities being held at various international industry events. But this celebration is as much about the technology’s future as it is about its past. The fact is, the laser is one spry quinquagenarian.

Although many researchers and no less a towering figure than Albert Einstein laid the theoretical foundations of the technology, the first actual functioning laser was developed by Theodore H. Maiman. On 16 May 1960, Maiman and his collaborators, working at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu on the Southern California coast, switched on a makeshift device that contained a coiled flash lamp surrounding a synthetic single-crystal ruby rod. “The experimenters . . . saw . . . a telltale burst of coherent radiation superimposed on the normal fluorescence. This team had just created the first working example of a laser,” writes Tom Baer from the Stanford Photonics Research Center in an article titled, “Why Celebrate LaserFest?” The full article, which was originally published in the November 2009 issue of APS News, also is posted under the Resources tab at emdt.co.uk.

Initially dismissed as a solution in search of a problem, the laser ultimately proved to be the solution to a multitude of problems. Just in the life sciences, the laser has the distinction of being both a medical device—sculpting corneas and performing surgery—and a manufacturing workhorse that machines stents and hermetically seals implantable electronic devices.

So, go forth and celebrate. Join the pack at LaserFest: a complete calendar of relevant trade shows and conferences is posted at www.laserfest.org. Or you could trip on over to your local Laserium and be blinded by swirling slashes of light as the “Great Gig in the Sky” swells from the sound system. Hey, why not do both? Just remember to dress appropriately for each event—that tie-dye might clash at Laser Optics 2010.
 

Norbert Sparrow
norbert.sparrow@cancom.com