The first working laser was demonstrated on May 16, 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.
The term "laser" is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
What would we do with out them.
I remember when I was a "Scientist" the only long room near my Lab was the 'corridor' , so we had permission from the Director to set a very low powered laser (Safe, about the same power as those hand held pointers you can buy) up along the corridor floor, we put up waning notices at each end of the corridor, saying it was a Laser and was very safe and very low powered.
During the two weeks of tests what was normally a very busy corridor was now very empty with only a few other people who were interested or not bothered.
We made some inquiries of some of the office workers who used the corridor ( and made a detour) and they thought it would cut there legs off.
