Reach for the lasers


Lasers! The future condensed into a single beam of penetrating light. What did I know about lasers? Next to nothing. What do I know now? A little bit more, including the surprising fact that laser is an acronym.

Someone asked me to write about lasers. Ahem. You could easily write everything I knew about lasers on the back of a fag packet. A small fag packet. In fact, even if you wrote in unusually large letters and left generous spacing between words there would still be room to draw a few doodles around the edges.

You see, science writing is far, far from my métier. I had to study separate sciences all the way to GCSE and gleefully jettisoned in favour of the soft, fluffy and human disciplines of history, English, geography and politics. But a request is a request, and, in this case, the requestor is unusually charming.

So it came as a pleasant surprise to be given an immediate etymological gift. Laser, it turns out, is an acronym. An acronym so lost in time that most people don’t even realise it stands for anything. The Oxford English Dictionary confidently states its debut in written English as 1960, and says it stands for ‘light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation’.

Intriguingly, the OED goes on to say this developed from an earlier 1955 discovery, the maser, or microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. You don’t hear of many masers these days, but watch this space – British scientists made significant discoveries last year that may open the door for masers to be used in communications, space exploration and medicine.

Back to the laser. It is widely used in the modern world, including day to day products such as CD and DVD players, laser printers, speed cameras and, of course, in euphorically colourful displays at raves around the world. But look more closely and you’ll find lasers everywhere.

Self scan yourself silly with a barcode detecting laser, laser yourself beautiful with treatments for hair removal, acne and cellulite. Read this blog more clearly after having your slightly defective eyes lasered to perfection. Give a sublimely professional presentation by highlighting key points with a laser pointer (actually, don’t do this – it is indefensibly naff).

Increase the power and take the laser away from the everyday uses and you have a whole range of specialist applications. Surgical lasers allow precision, bloodless microsurgery and a painless treatment for kidney stones. Watch in awe as industrial lasers slice through metals cleanly and with micrometre precision.

Finally, duck and cover as the inevitable military applications are demonstrated: laser guided missiles, precision bombing, target marking, gun sights and missile defence. Missile defence? Oh, yeah – the Strategic Defense Imitative (SDI), nicknamed Star Wars. Actually, scrap that – just like the US did in 1993.

So, lasers are pretty useful. But what are they? Pretty beams of light? A laser is a device that emits electromagnetic radiation through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. Got that?

Let’s break it down. Lasers can be understood as a special form of light. So special, in fact, that they can’t exist in nature; lasers can only be created by human technology. Lasers are a single colour, or wavelength, with a coherent wave pattern. Whilst ‘ordinary’ light will spread out in all directions, laser light travels in the same direction, exactly parallel to each other and producing the distinctive laser beam.

So, plenty to read up on if you are still interested in lasers. I’ll leave you with some of my favourite fun facts about lasers:

  • the full potential of lasers was not always appreciated. When first reported in 1960, lasers were described as being “a solution looking for a problem”.


One thought on “Reach for the lasers

  • yali

    The the latest fashion which is becoming immensely popular within the illumination of car headlights is VDI client LED or Light Emitting Diode. Its features are incomparable and will be found in hardly any other device available. Gu10 led You don’t need to censor yourself inside pages or worry that individuals will misunderstand you. When you grow with led lights, the warmth generated will not be too hot. Only you should find the water proof variety for this function.

    Reducing the exposure time to the light may help alleviate the restlessness. It’s also worth keeping in mind that using mirrors in the bathroom is a good way of creating the illusion of space, making a small space seem larger and brighter. Once found, confirm the m – Ah listed about the on their package or about the batteries themselves. I’ve included a wiring diagram, however for those that will simply desktop virtualization bring the lights for the dealer to obtain installed this is actually the essence of computer. The savings in labor costs alone may make LEDs nearly buy themselves.

    LED arrays include hundreds of individual LEDs. If the results happy with that then he will have breast. Which is ideal for what you are looking for in the TV. Most of these lights are costly but durable and environment friendly. LED lighting is however more proficient since it can E27 led last over seventy five times than incandescent light and most eight times than fluorescent lights.

    The applications of these LED lights a variety of and these are employed widely. The treatment of SAD is especially important for businesses, particularly offices, as it can certainly retard the performance of employees. I would recommend looking for your MR16 LED bulbs which may have one very bright LED in the centre with a diffraction lens to spread the sunshine out evenly. Although LED lighting is more costly than traditional bulbs, homeowners can cancel out the cost on energy savings. LEDs can be bought ready fixed in a sheet of plastic or run down the edge of an piece of acrylic which could then be cut to accommodate the particular application.

    When you take a moment and take into account the lifecycle from the LED just how long they can work, you will find that spending a little more funds upfront LED Spotlight and you LED Cabinet Light will get a good quality LED lights. Strength determines many times if you are in a position to reach your target. Cosmetics, face lift cream are not able to penetrate much below the outer layer of our skin to fix the fat cells. How do solar lights store energy and just how do they work. But recent improvements to LEDs are creating bulbs that have clusters of LED lights with diffuser lenses.

Comments are closed.