Short for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, or LASER (I learned that a few years after hearing the term in a cartoon show) is 48 years old today after its birth way back in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Labs. Today, the laser is very prevalent in our everyday activities be it at work, at home or even at play. It has become a multi-billion dollar industry ranging from a simple pointer to the field of surgery. Our compact discs and DVD players are useless without laser. Even the military uses laser in weapons delivery for precision targets. Thanks to the genius of Theodore Maiman for his magnificent work. Mr. Maiman passsed away May 5 last year at the age of 79.
Although, there are many individuals who claimed for the accolade regarding the laser's invention, it was Maiman who completed the first working LASER. Its history dates back to Albert Einstein's Quantum Theory of Radiation, 1917, to the works of Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow at Bell Labs, 1957, and Gordon Gould who first coined the term LASER in 1959.
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