[tet68]

Honest,I just saw this on the cover of popular Mechanics,

America's lazer fighting blimps bring death to terrorists from high altitude.

Honest,at the Kroger!

[Lancey Howard]

When I was at Penn State, I saw a guest lecturer by the name of Rennie Davis (remember him - - Chicago seven or something?). This was around 1973. He talked about US use of lasers in Vietnam and I just took him for goofy. But over the years, I have seen enough references to wonder if maybe we were indeed playing around with lasers back then.

[El Gato]

lazer That's LASER, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Been studying on 'em since high school, way back in the bad old 1960s. But at least they are younger than I am. :) Predecessor was the MASER, where "M" stands for Microwave. The moniker fits the MASER bettter than most LASERs since they really are used as low noise amplifiers. Most LASERs are more akin to oscillators rather than amplifiers. The current high powered ones are chemically powered, usually with some real nasty chemicals too.