Alexander Prokhorov

A physicist, Prokhorov helped lay the groundwork for the development of the laser. "Many believed that we had gone crazy, that it was impossible," he once said. "Before that no one had said it was possible to create a generator of optical range. Then it became a new, independent science: optics." For his work, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 (with another Russian and an American). But he refused to conform to the Soviet ideal, defiantly listing dissident Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov when he edited the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, and turning down a position in the Soviet parliament, declaring "I am not a politician. I am a scientist." He died January 8 in Moscow from pneumonia. He was 85. From This is True for 6 January 2002 Suggestions for further reading: They All Laughed... From Light Bulbs to Lasers: The Fascinating Stories Behin... by Ira Flatow Amazon Price: $10.14 Customer Review: Very good, well written book that I will read a couple more times. Inspirational in that not every world changing event was welcomed with open arms and truck loads of money being thrown at inventors... All were good examples of inventions that chan...   Dodge Daytona & Chrysler Laser: The Definitive History 1984-1993 by Greg McCausey Amazon Price: $12.71 Customer Review: I have the first edition of this book and looking forward to the updated second edition.   Beam: The Race to Make the Laser by Jeff Hecht Amazon Price: $36.00 Customer Review: I appreciate the effort it took to tell this story. I was on the edge of my seat at times. There were some really special people doing some rather fantastic science. "Pushing the envelope" is the polite translation of what my dad would s...   Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War by Nick Taylor Amazon Price: $19.75 Customer Review: LASER by Nick Taylor is a 304 page biography of Gordon Gould, one of the inventors of the laser. The book contains eight pages of glossy black and white photographs, which have no page numbers and are inserted between pages 160 and 161 of the text. <...   Troublesome Border, Revised Edition by Oscar J. Martínez Amazon Price: $15.19 Customer Review: A PROFEX Monograph This book uses conflict as a unifying theme to examine historical and contemporary relationships in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Well into the twentieth century, Mexico and the United States faced many troublesome issu...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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