13 Dec 2010
Our Changing World feature - 50 years of the laser
Lasers are all around us - in supermarkets to scan barcodes, to read DVDs and CDs, in laser printers, and in optic fibresthe list goes on. To celebrate the laser's "golden anniversary", Ruth Beran met Cather Simpson, Kylie Price and Justin Hodgkiss to get a potted history of the laser's controversial development, and to discover some of the light-emitting device's more unusual applications.