The next time you turn on your CD player, remember that, without lasers, it wouldn't exist. Laser theory was first described by Albert Einstein in 1917. When it came to credit for turning theory into practice, there was a bit of a tussle - a not unusual occurrence in the halls of academe. The first laser patent application was lodged in 1958 by American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes. This was granted - then promptly challenged by another American scientist, Gordon Gould, who was finally granted a patent in 1977.
Lasers are a great example of life imitating art.
Six years later, the United States began work on an anti-missile system involving lasers, dubbed, inevitably, 'Star Wars'. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was shelved. However, the project was recently revived, and trials are under way using laser beams as weapons in space.