Why don’t we just celebrate all year long?

Once upon a time, August was designated as National Inventors Month and then it was changed to May.

Promoting a positive image of inventors and the real contributions they give to this world is a big deal and recognition on a national level with specific time frame set aside for it is certainly awesome.

(Of course, for all other recognition worthy moments throughout the year, there’s patentplaques.com)

Just what is National Inventors Month?
Continue reading “A Day Late and a Dollar Short” →

If the name maser doesn’t ring a bell, maybe laser will.

The first working laser was reported in 1960 and described as “a solution looking for a problem.”

“Today, lasers are everywhere: from research laboratories at the cutting edge of quantum physics to medical clinics, supermarket checkouts and the telephone network.” (The First Laser, Charles H. Townes from A Century of Nature: Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World.)

March 22 marked the day in 1960 when Arthur L Schawlow and Charles H. Townes were granted US Patent 292922 for the maser which is now known as the Laser.

But, before thoughts of an Obi-wan Kenobi/Darth Vader duel dance in your head, ponder this: it took more than a few Nobel prize winning physicists to study atoms doing a jig –to pave the path and forge into the future –with the light beams now known as lasers.

Explained, a Laser or, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation are powerful light beams driven by energy (excited atoms) “that are capable of zooming miles into the sky or cutting through chunks of metal” Continue reading “Molecules, Microwaves, Masers and Lasers” →