Building on the discoveries of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Dennis Gabor, and stemming partly from Gabor’s invention of the hologram, the discoveries and inventions that led to the first working LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in 1960 is a long, fascinating journey.
As soon as the first working lasers were developed, myriad applications were devised, from eye surgery to other medical devices to telecommunications, internet data transmission, holography, and bar-code scanners, while higher-powered lasers had other medical and even military applications. The latest laser research will lead to high-powered weaponry as well as more peaceful innovations such as speeding up computers by one million times their current capability and finally achieving nuclear fusion power.
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