The Great Future of Laser Medicine and Surgery After 1985

Abstract

There are two interesting contrasting pictures on the current laser scene, the 25th Year of the Laser. One is the most powerful laser at present. This is Nova of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. This laser has ten huge Neodymium laser beams, with a very special coating, focused on a tiny spot in a 16 foot sphere and producing 120,000 trillion watts. This is for so-called defense weaponry, fusion and energy. The other picture is the development for better health care and this is a portable, battery operated CO² laser of Directed Energy, sometimes 8 watts, in a suitcase weighing about 11.4 kilograms. This suitcase arrangement reminds me of the Nobel Prize winner, Professor Arthur Schawlow, who carried a battery operated ruby laser to demonstrate color absorption on a black monkeý balloon of the San Francisco Zoo.