Who Invented Lasers and How Do They Actually Work?

[@TodayIFoundOut]

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[@Mrtweet81]

light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, not via stimulated…

[@hurtfixer_]

Lasers came from UFO crash retrievals

[@navret1707]

When lasers were first produced in the 1950’s and 1960’s they were called a solution looking for a problem. Amazing how important and widespread they have become over the years.

[@1pcfred]

Even by the 1970s no one had still come up with a single practical use for lasers. But that didn't lesson the excitement about them. Scientists from Bell Labs gave my grammar school a demonstration of them way back then. How excited they all were was obvious.

[@JoeGator23]

Ironically "They were called a solution looking for a problem" is true when attached to military weapon targeting systems... quite literally.

[@Annihilator2011]

There were no lasers in the 1950s. First one was invented in 1960 at bell labs.

[@1pcfred]

@@Annihilator2011 Bell Labs didn't invent the laser. They were only early experimenters with the technology. They tried to invent something to do with lasers. Even by the 70s they has still drawn a blank on that note too.

[@Annihilator2011]

@@1pcfredOkay, it was at Hughes Labs not Bell but the point being there were no lasers in the 1950s...

[@asylumental]

Keeping our feline overlords entertained is absolutely the most important use for the laser. 😂👌

[@1pcfred]

My cat used to love chasing the red bug.

[@deadlikedisco4726]

I've been in love with lasers since I was little and recently got my hands on a 10 Watt diode laser. It's been incredibly fun to see in action. It's amazing how powerful compact lasers have become in recent history.

[@Hunting4knowledge]

I too recently got one. I've been having all kinds of fun with woods, plastics, metals, clothing, etc.

[@deadlikedisco4726]

@@Hunting4knowledge Right? It's very fun

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Look up styropyro to see how powerful handheld lasers can really get

[@Panthror]

Great video once again, and on that last note: KZbin channel 'Hacksmith Industries' has been working on actual lightsabers for a while. Three years ago their development completed the proto-saber stage. This means they have a working lightsaber, but it is powered by an external source. They are currently working on getting the power source inside the saber. My estimation, based on their latest update, is that within 10 years we will have lightsabers (if all goes well).

[@colleenriordan9734]

Thank you for the info! I'm gonna go check it out now. 👍🏻

[@kitefan1]

Ill have to go look at that. Thanks. But without the Force, I always picture the meeting between Indiana Jones and the fellow with the swords in the Marketplace when he's looking for Marion. Sword Guy: lots of fancy moves > Indy: gunshot.

[@Panthror]

@@kitefan1 What they made is more a plasma saber, so it won't deflect bullets, but it might melt them😉

[@kitefan1]

@@Panthror LOL. Probably illegal in Calif then. One of their biggest markets.

[@kitefan1]

@@Panthror Very scary.

[@w13rdguy]

I've only ever heard lasers explained once before, in a manner that I understood it immediately. That was about thirty years ago. Good job!

[@1pcfred]

50 years ago researchers from Bell Labs gave us a demonstration of lasers in school. I grew up next door to the Labs. Two of the guys from there that invented the transistor were living in my home town when they did that. We were basically their community. Even I've worked on the campus.

[@AndyMcDrew]

14:31 Haven't you heard of the Hacksmith? He's working on improving his lightsaber prototypes, of which he has many.

[@joegordon5117]

I now await Simon's follow up video, explaining who first created the "stun" setting! 😁

[@trevorwilliams6362]

Aww. Those are phasers. It's a common mistake, though, so don't feel bad. 😅

[@joegordon5117]

@@trevorwilliams6362 It's not a mistake, I do know the difference, but ignored it to emply what Earth people call "humour" 😁 For precedent I refer the jury to the Bing Bang Theory mining a similar theme when they were using laser measuring equipment directed at the Moon, and the visiting jock worries this means they will blow it up, so they assure him it is set to stun power

[@trevorwilliams6362]

@joegordon5117 I'm sorry my retort didn't have any canned laughter attached 😔

[@espedeze]

“Stimulated Emission” will never not be funny

[@Flesh_Wizard]

"AMBATUKAM!!!" - laser

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

If LASER printers and barcode scanners supposedly came out in the early 70s, then why didn't we see them in use until the mid-to-late 80s?

[@randalmayeux8880]

Lasers make great special effects at rock concerts! I first saw this at a Blue Oyster Cult show at Moody Colesseum in Dallas, Texas back in 1975.

[@TheWookiee1977]

Simon, I know how much it pained to you suggest the scientists should develop a working lightsaber, but its really would be novel. Probably more practical in a smaller format, such as surgical scalpels or cutlery, but who wouldn't want to see a real one?

[@agalah408]

Gotta love Val Kilmer movie quotes.... "it came to me. It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, it's an excimer frozen in its excited state." Bodie : "Th... That's impossible." Chris Knight : "It's a chemical laser but in solid, not gaseous, form. Put simply, in deference to you, Kent, it's like lasing a stick of dynamite. As soon as we apply a field, we couple to a state that is radiatively coupled to the ground state. I figure we can extract at least ten to the twenty-first photons per cubic centimeter which will give one kilojoule per cubic centimeter at 600 nanometers, or, one megajoule per liter."

[@Riwillion]

I wouldn't have expected Simon to know that lightsaber blades are made of plasma contained within an energy field, but I would expect his writers to know better.

[@Jessepigman69]

This isn’t even Simon’s channel. But yes the writers should have looked into that a tad harder considering their viewer base

[@Russo-Delenda-Est]

There is a clip of George himself calling them "laser swords" they are lasers. Wonky Scifi lasers, bit still, lasers.

[@dotter8]

14:27 Are you mad, sir? We'd be living long ago in a galaxy far, far away!

[@DavidBaron-sq4ro]

Excellent beginner explanation! Now take it to next level, coherency

[@jaywilliamsphoto]

After all the stimulated emissions in this video, I need a cigarette!

[@anthonyfrench3169]

Thanks for this, now I know how Laser Cats were created, not by one person but by many...

[@Sensei_BigJoe]

I always think of the movie "Real Genius" when I think about making lasers.

[@1pcfred]

I'll never forget the presentation Bell Labs scientists gave my school. People in this video were on stage in front of me. Because I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

[@JerryB507]

Well, we do need a working weapon by mid-May. Popcorn anyone?

[@FintaruS]

I love this project. Places keep them coming ☺️

[@KyleMeyer949]

I’m just as curious about the person who invented laser eye surgery. Not sure how you could look into a laser and think that it might actually be useful to help people vision from the experience before we knew about it

[@theman5887]

What corrective vision eye surgery does is cut the cornea in such a way that it reshape the curvature. Human hands can do it pretty good but computerized lasers can do it stupidly good.

[@eadweard.]

Your comment was going quite well until it collapsed into gibberish at the end.

[@mx54kev]

I found this video very interesting as for years before the internet I knew exactly where lasers were invented and it is not the official story as shown here, I know this will get me backlash but here goes. Back in 1983, I went to work for GEC at Mill Rd, Rugby, U.K. The site was huge and a lot of the buildings were missing their roofs which I thought was due to bomb damage but it was actually Lord Winstock taking the roofs off unused buildings to save tax. I worked as a draughtsman in the main drawing office on the ground floor, the car park was at the front with the staff canteen on the left. The building had a couple of features I had to ask about, the first was the tiled entrance that had the letters BTH on the floor, I asked the office manager about it, and he said that's what we do here..Big, Thick and Heavy pulling my leg as he later explained it stood for British Thompson Houston that originally built much of the site before GEC took over. Then I asked him about the plack on the wall that stated that this laboratory produced the world's first laser that helped the war effort. He explained that during the Second World War, the drawing office was used as a lab to develop weapons to help win the war and that after the war the lab was closed and the MOD removed everything except the plack. I just accepted this as I did not know where lasers came from but thought it was cool that I was working somewhere that had that sort of history. Unfortunately, GEC is no more and the site has been redeveloped into housing and a distribution center. The only other thing I can tell you is that the laser light was red as they would shine it up into the sky at night to test it on planes but what it was for I don't know, as only two people in the office knew about it. I stopped working there in 1986 and a couple of years later they started knocking the old buildings down. I know it's not official history but the plack was pretty old and so were the guys that knew about it.

[@RichardNickels-ot6iq]

Great job

[@TypoKnig]

I’d heard about the rejection by Physical Review Letters. Thank you for digging deeper!

[@jjbn500]

I for one accept our Feline Laser Overlords

[@Pr0toPoTaT0]

I don't trust any feline ever.

[@altariacorona]

8:49 May 16th, the anniversary of first succesful laser operation of Maiman is celebrated as International Day of Light. This signifies the importance of photonic technologies for future of humankind

[@sydhenderson6753]

Yes!

[@diyeana]

I know my electrons get excited and release energy into the play button whenever I see a Whistlerverse notification.

[@asylumental]

Lol

[@v3rlon]

Referring to a (possibly apocryphal) story I read 30 years ago, so forgive me if it isn't perfect. While set to receive some award for their work, Maiman presented his wife with a ring made from one of the rubies he'd used making the early lasers. Ms. Townes looks to her husband and asked why he did not do something similar, to which he quipped, "Because the crystal I used was made of cyanide."

[@bradlevantis913]

One of Gilles’ scripts. I’ve found his channel. It’s an interesting mix of topics

[@Crosshair1990]

My favorite use of the laser is the interferometer - it can detect vibrations as small as the diameter of a hydrogen atom! incredible stuff.

[@the_once-and-future_king.]

You have the ability to blow up planets sympathetic to the rebellion, but you want to play with vibrating hydrogen atoms instead?

[@Anacher429]

Don't forget laser communication via satellite. The Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC) mission recently launched with the Psyche mission.

[@Obi-J]

I believe NASA actually tested this last month and it worked perfectly. They fired a near infrared laser signal encoded with test data including a HD video of cat belonging to one of the mission scientists(yup, the first deep space laser communication signal was a cat video, because of course it was) back at earth from over 10 lunar distances away. The laser signal was recieved by a ground station telescope in Australia and then relayed to the mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs in the US. The signal took longer to travel across the globe from Australia to the US than it did to travel from almost 10million miles away in space.

[@TerribleMuriel]

We love how soft that purple light is now ;)

[@lewiswestfall2687]

Thanks Simon

[@Ash_Dean]

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

[@keithwald5349]

Wow, I was pleasantly surprised by how accurately the physics was described.

[@happycamper6298]

Am I the only 40-something who wants to fall over, cackling, every time he says ‘stimulated emissions’? No? Only me?

[@yo388]

Simon’s dressed down appearance is surprising

[@noone-igloo]

In my sleepy state I read this title as "Who Invented Lawyers and How Do They Actually Work?"

[@string_fellow_hawk]

Good argument for Einstein coming up with the formula in the 20s as well.

[@eadweard.]

You'd need to be more specific really.

[@joelellis7035]

Lightsaber? Naw, I want my Phaser gun!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content!❤❤❤❤

[@davey7452]

NASA is working on a laser to melt lunar dust into a molten gell that can be squirted on a 3d printer to make a building as strong as concrete so it will be the fundimental method to build habitable buildings on the moon.

[@eadweard.]

Not sure the conclusion follows from the premise.

[@davey7452]

@@eadweard. there is a 60 minutes program about 3D printed buildings mentioning NASA planning to use it for lunar habitations.

[@eadweard.]

@@davey7452 Right. But that doesn't mean it _will_ be used for lunar habitations.

[@JCWren]

I knew this had to be a Gilles episode :)

[@The-three-eyed-Prophet]

Amazing Video Like Always !!! ... i just love adding new mostly useless knowledge to my Brain !!! ... lol #Fact´s

[@mickeyray3793]

Tom Swift and His Microwave Oven😅

[@dda40x1]

How is it that this site has over 3M subs and The Casual Criminalist only has 534K subs? chop, chop Simon!

[@1pcfred]

In the early 1970s geeks from Bell Labs gave my classmates and I a demonstration of lasers at school. It was bizarre. I suspect today they were using us as a practice audience for their presentation. Because they were not good at being on stage. So I've probably seen some folks in this video in real life. The Labs were early pioneers in work with lasers. We were a grammar school. So really young children. They did say the laser was a solution looking for a problem then. At that point it'd done nothing of practical value yet. But they were all so excited about it.

[@thomasmolloy5447]

11:42 "created the carbon dioxide laser, which could easily be built in the megawatt range"....... In the 40 megawatt range perhaps?.....

[@neoasura]

Like a Phase Plasma rifle in a 40 watt range.

[@markreynolds1436]

Just what you see pal.

[@debbiehicks288]

It's great to see you ❤❤

[@Typical.Anomaly]

GEORGE SANTOS!!!

[@Sniperboy5551]

What does he have to do with this video?

[@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245]

GG ALLIN

[@Typical.Anomaly]

@@Sniperboy5551 He invented lasers!

[@Typical.Anomaly]

@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245 Ah, yes, the REAL Jesus Christ. Back in the 90s I saw a VHS of him performing. He threw his own sh*t into the audience. I think he might have penetrated himself with something too.

[@danwhitesall3521]

You know, he claims to be Jewish so space lasers. (Lying a-hole)

[@SiblingCreature]

Wouldn't we then be living in the past? Star Wars is specifically set "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." 🤣

[@larryl43]

thanks you

[@agalah408]

Lasers are all fine and dandy, but I want my hoverboard!

[@wulfyj7516]

There was those silent ones that perfected this tech to assemble a space station, not that it matters these days more that the cheesecutter.

[@NorthOntarian]

now all we need to do is find a shark to attach the freakin laser to.. sea bass may have to do

[@Obi-J]

They already have trained dolphins equipped with poison dart guns... allegedly. There was that thing a few years ago where supposedly some of them escaped to the open ocean after a hurricane(Katrina?) flooded a naval training facility on the coast, or so the story went.

[@Obi-J]

I seem to recall seeing a video of a Beluga whale spotted by some Swedish fishermen up in the Baltic Sea, that had been custom fitted with some sort of special harness(potentially capable of having cameras/microphones or other devices attached to it, believed to have been made in Russia.

[@karldewet5393]

There is no decoding of data in a Laserdisc system. The movies are stored in analogue form.

[@kmagnussen1052]

The most important use of a LASER is to irritate cats. I am saying that sarcastically . because I worked in the laser plasma lab at Tenn Tech. I built a ruby LASER and CO2 LASER. I also own cats that love chasing the red beam they don't react to the green beams.

[@sydhenderson6753]

I would give Maiman the credit for inventing the laser though he didn't create the theory behind it.

[@agalah408]

Lasers...Helping sharks everywhere achieve their full potential.

[@Silhouex]

Do an episode on the Grover shoe fire disaster of 1905.

[@madmartigan4141]

And here i thought they were reverse engineered from the alien craft that crashed in Roswell 😂

[@joeschlepp]

wonder how many of their friends they "accidentally" blinded showing off their new invention. hey hold my beer and watch this.

[@demonorb8634]

Nothing about sharks with lasers on their head aww

[@matthewreynolds8025]

or a laser guided bee cannon

[@thesuncollective1475]

I enjoyed that.

[@soniclab-cnc]

Watching this while cutting Baltic plywood on my big ass home brew laser cutter.... 130 watts of C02 laser in my workshop.

[@jay2thedub]

Hacksmith is working on the lightsaber. Don't you worry.

[@mho...]

Physics teacher called it "boring light" , because its only one frequency 😆

[@theawesomeman9821]

Surprised that aliens were not credited for inventing lasers ;p

[@turtletom8383]

4:04 science today

[@vman7321]

Can you get the ones the Storm Troopers use to work? 😂

[@JohnSmith-bv1jg]

Oh fact Boi, you would rejoice to know that we're super close to lightsabers in all actuality lol Not going to name the channel but a quick KZbin search would show any interested persons to a pretty cool work in progress 😎

[@MF_UNDERTOW]

Simon wearing a polyester under layer with a stretched collar is throwing me off.

[@MrPhillipcmartin]

"Stimulated Emissions"

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

"Invented the first gas LASER..." * "Invented _the_ gas LASER." Others after that were just developments. The first one is _the_ (one) invention.

[@Crioten]

Starfishes love lasers

[@bruce.of.Britain]

Britain - the answer is always, 'a Brit', we invented candles, oil lamps, gas lamps and the lightbulb so it goes without saying that we invented the laser. History is essy when you're British - we invented everything.

[@rager-69]

Light sabres in the future? I thought they were from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

[@elfpimp1]

Actually, if we were to invent a light saber we would be living in the past as the title inteo tobstar wars stayes a LONG time AGO.. thus putting those events in the past.. the past was great!

[@gavinovaldez8002]

Are we still doing phrasing?

[@MickLogi]

awesome.

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

Ali Javan received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 1993.

[@agimasoschandir]

There is also the SPIE Maiman Laser Award, Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, and for about 11 years the Einstein Prize for Laser Science

[@danielriley7380]

Sod the lightsaber, I’m not a Jedi. Just give me my hoverboard already!

[@Obi-J]

Speak for yourself.

[@danielriley7380]

@@Obi-J I was. I’ve no interest in owning weaponry.

[@samarthur1847]

Surely light sabres were in the past?

[@aaronblack9347]

Ok, so I've watched damn near quad digits of Simon's videos....why is he not dapper today? Is that a pajama shirt?

[@Hurricayne92]

I'm not sure there is anything you can't do with a Laser

[@TheSoltesz]

So theybmade a microwave gun before the laser? Cool today I learned this

[@CrisMind]

The best invention for cats and their slaves of all time

[@TheSlayneProphet]

I hope Simon and his are okay. He's said he lives in Prague before, but idk if he is just joking about that. Just saying...

[@andrewdewar8159]

Ok they are all the same frequency and phase, why doesn't laser light diffuse, I mean spread out or diffract ? I know lasers can be very dangerous, if it goes in your eyes and is focused on the retina, the power could be thousands of times greater. You have to have glasses that will filter the right wavelength of your laser. They cost a lot of money, and if the laser shines directly into them, they don't hold out for ever. a couple of minutes maybe. I mean for powerful lasers like medical ones that are class III. Your CD is class one I think. Class IV is the strongest, military ones.

[@pauljackson3491]

It's a little better with the breaks you do between ideas; more time to sink in.

[@dannydandaniel8040]

"Easily built in the megawatt range"..... Kw, maybe can be described as easy, but certainly not megawatt range lasers. Even if it is a co2 laser

[@Bearkat87]

They don’t give Nobel prizes for theoretical physics, and gravity is technically just a theory. Re: einsteins prize

[@eadweard.]

Like germ theory?

[@ecocodex4431]

"stimulated" "pumping mechanism" We.... are still talking lasers, right?

[@jodi_kreiner]

optical engineer here 🙋🏻‍♀️ I build directed energy weapons so I literally work with lasers every day. if you want a little more info on how lasers actually work, I also have a video on my channel going into some more detail on that topic 🙇🏻‍♀️

[@ImplodedAtom]

Hehe, "Stimulated Emission". Yes, I am that immature 😔

[@ChainsawFPV]

How can you talk about lasers without including Styro Pyro! Lol

[@ragokueod]

Simon, a light Saber isn't really a laser beam but a focused beam of PLASMA. That's just a bonus fact for you. Here's another, some KZbinrs have managed to build a working model, though limited since it isn't portable and classified as an Arc Cutter.

[@CrimznFox]

Real Genius duh

[@josephharrison5639]

Hacksmith would like to show you something bout the ending

[@mutanix]

"La-ser""