As the majority of people will know, the scientific advances of the twentieth century far exceeded those of any previous era, as an increasing number of great inventors searched for new and better ways of executing a myriad of tasks covering the whole of mankind’s daily chores. And computers and technology have had an even bigger impact in more recent times, making it possible to accomplish things that would have been impossible until a few years ago.
Whilst it is accurate to point out that not all of the advances have necessarily been embraced by all of the people – nuclear weapons is a clear and emotive example – the great majority of advances have indeed made our lives simpler and more enjoyable. Such improvements involve enhanced entertainment ideas, automated machines to complete household chores, surgical improvements, enhancements to commercial processes and so much more.
Included in the many innovations of the last fifty years is the laser, and at first, many people could struggle to come up with an obvious way through which using a laser impacts on our lives virtually every day, but once you take a few minutes to consider, there are considerably more than you think.
Albert Einstein originally suggested the theory of ‘laser’ in 1917, but it was not until the 1950’s that scientists began to try and prove his theory correct. However, in 1960 the very first laser was unveiled. The word laser was actually created as it was an acronym of ‘Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation’. Well, obviously!
The laser was in the area of science until 1974 when it made its first proper public arrival as the crucial part of new supermarket barcode scanners, and if you can remember back to the time when every unit on sale in a supermarket had a sticky price label on it which had to be tapped into the till manually you’ll definitely acknowledge just how much effect the use of that one little ‘Laser eye’ has had on speeding up the shopping experience.
In the public domain, hard on the heels of the barcode scanner, the laser disc player was introduced onto the market (the discs are still highly collectable in some areas of the market despite the fact that the equipment never truly caught on). Shortly after that, the Compact Disc Player appeared – and where would any music system be without that piece of equipment? And on the subject of music, bands including Pink Floyd, The Who and Electric Light Orchestra were already making use of laser light shows to enrich their live shows during the 1970’s, although similar light shows are now highly regulated after health and safety issues relating to Laser eye damage.
Out of public view though, scientists and experts in many disciplines had been suggesting and then developing lots of other uses for lasers. In the area of healthcare, treatments for kidney stones, some orthodontics requirements and Laser eye surgery were all being developed, as well as cosmetic surgery uses such as scar and tattoo removal, hair removal and treatment for acne.
In industry, the laser is now used for functions such as cutting and welding. And in military deployment, lasers are involved in both defence and attack strategies in various ways. It is incredible to think that just this one invention has so many possibilities in everyday life, as do so many other new concepts from the last few decades.
As with so many versatile inventions, it would appear that more uses for the laser are likely to be discovered in the coming years. If a laser can play music and images for us, what else might it do in the world of entertainment? If it can heal someone’s vision through Laser eye surgery, or remove kidney stones or scars, what other areas of the body could it also be used to heal? There are probably a huge number of other things that it could be used for too – the limit is most likely mankind’s imagination.