Charles Townes, who helped invent now-ubiquitous laser, dies
Jan 29, 2015 9:06 AM (ET)
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20150129/us--obit-laser_inventor-227ebda1f7.html
File - In this Jan. 25, 1955, file photo, Charles Hard Townes, Columbia
University professor and Nobel laureate, explains his invention the
maser during a news conference in New York City. Townes, who did most of
the work that would make him one of three scientists to share the 1964
Nobel Prize in physics for research leading to the creation of the laser
while he was a faculty member at Columbia University, has died. He was
99. Officials at the University of California, Berkeley, where Townes
was a professor emeritus, said he had been in poor health before he died
Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, on the way to an Oakland, Calif., hospital. (AP
Photo/File)
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Charles H. Townes' inspiration for the
predecessor of the laser came to him while sitting on a park bench,
waiting for a restaurant to open for breakfast.
On the tranquil morning of April 26, 1951, Townes scribbled a theory on
scrap paper that would lead to the laser, the invention he's known for
and which transformed everyday life and led to other scientific discoveries.
Townes, who was also known for his strong spiritual faith, famously
compared that moment to a religious revelation.
The 99-year-old Nobel Prize-winning physicist died Tuesday.
In 1954, that theory was realized when Townes and his students developed
the laser's predecessor, the maser (microwave amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation).
"I realized there would be many applications for the laser," Townes told
Esquire magazine in 2001, "but it never occurred to me we'd get such
power from it."
The laser paved the way for other scientific discoveries that
revolutionized everything from medicine to manufacturing but also has a
huge array of applications today: DVD players, gun sights, printers,
computer networks, metal cutters, tattoo removal and vision correction
are just some of the tools and technologies that rely on lasers.
"Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in
general," Steven Boggs, the chairman of the physics department at the
University of California, Berkeley, said Wednesday.
A devoted member of the United Church of Christ, Townes drew praise and
skepticism later in his career with a series of speeches and essays
investigating the similarities between science and religion.
"Science tries to understand what our universe is like and how it works,
including us humans," Townes wrote in 2005 upon being awarded the
Templeton Prize for his contributions in "affirming life's spiritual
dimension." The award, billed as the world's richest religion prize, was
worth more than $1.5 million, and past recipients have included Mother
Teresa.
"My own view is that, while science and religion may seem different,
they have many similarities, and should interact and enlighten each
other," he wrote.
Townes was a faculty member at Columbia University when he did most of
the work that would make him one of three scientists to share the 1964
Nobel Prize in physics for research leading to the creation of the
laser. The others were Russian physicists Aleksandr M. Prokhorov and
Nicolai G. Basov.
Townes' research applied the microwave technique used in wartime radar
research to the study of spectroscopy, the dispersion of an object's
light into its component colors.
He envisioned that would provide a new window into the structure of
atoms and molecules and a new basis for controlling electromagnetic
waves. His insights eventually led to the first laser.
Born on July 28, 1915, in Greenville, South Carolina, to Baptist parents
who embraced an open-minded interpretation of theology, Townes found his
calling during his sophomore year at Furman University and went on to
earn a master's degree from Duke University in physics and a doctorate
at the California Institute of Technology.
He married his wife, Frances Hildreth Townes, in 1941, and designed
radar bombing systems for Bell Laboratories during World War II.
Demonstrating that masers could be made to operate in optical and
infrared capacities, Townes and his brother-in-law, the late Stanford
professor Arthur L. Schawlow, jointly published a theory in 1958 on the
feasibility of optical and infrared masers, or lasers.
A laser controls the way that energized atoms release photons, or light
particles. Today, the laser performs tasks ranging from cutting metal to
vision correction and tattoo removal, but its inventors say they didn't
foresee any of that.
"I feel that very rarely have I done any work in my life," he told
Esquire. "I have a good time. I'm exploring. I'm playing a game, solving
puzzles and having fun, and for some reason, people have been willing to
pay me for it. Officially, I was supposed to retire years ago, but
retire from what? Why stop having a good time?"
In 1966, he published an article called "The Convergence of Science and
Religion" in the IBM journal THINK.
The difference between science and religion "are largely superficial,"
he wrote, "the two become almost indistinguishable if we look at the
real nature of each."
In an era when many scientists steadfastly avoided ties to religion, the
views expressed in the piece were seen as blasphemy by people in both
communities. Over the years, he wrote and spoke often on the subject.
"Many people don't realize that science basically involves assumptions
and faith. But nothing is absolutely proved," Townes said in 2005.
"Wonderful things in both science and religion come from our efforts
based on observations, thoughtful assumptions, faith and logic."
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