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We searched for "laser" in the Yahoo! directory and discovered an overwhelming number of categories that contain the word -- everything from laser pointers to laser printers to racing sailboats called lasers to the San Jose Lasers, a women's basketball team. We're guessing you want to know about lasers in science, so we changed our tactics to focus our results. This time we searched for a "laser FAQ." FAQ stands for "frequently asked questions" -- it's a handy Internet resource when you're looking for the basics on any topic. FAQs serve as primers, offering simple question and answer-style introductions to diverse subjects. We found Sam's Laser FAQ and learned that a laser (Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is a highly concentrated, powerful beam of light that does not exist naturally, but may be produced in various mediums, using a variety of techniques. Lasers were invented as part of a scientific exploration of light and electromagnetism. Today, they are widely used in medicine, military and commercial applications, entertainment, computers and communications. We found two interesting sites that explore the history of lasers. The Invention of the Laser at Bell Labs looks at the collaborative work of Charles Townes and Arthur L. Schawlow and 40 years of subsequent laser development, while the informative laser section of Light!,
a Thinkquest '99 site created by a team of students in Poland and the United States, credits Theodore Maiman with building the first actual working laser in 1960.
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