Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon

October 29, 2018
Hecht, a contributing editor to Laser Focus World magazine, charts the extensive, convoluted history of the laser, focusing on the American government’s long quest to exploit it militarily. Hecht first explores the early 20th-century fascination with the idea of weapons created out of light, citing the first science fiction representations of fantastical “death rays.” He then profiles the post-WWII pioneers who developed aspects of the earliest working lasers, including Gordon Gould, Theodore Maiman, and Charles Townes, highlighting the intense rivalries and relationships that developed between them. From there, Hecht moves chronologically through various U.S. military projects, for example, the pursuit of an airborne laser aboard a converted Boeing 747, Ronald Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” antinuclear defensive system, and the mobile lasers now used against rockets and other bombs on the front lines of war. Throughout, Hecht attempts to describe the dense scientific processes in simple prose and even provides some helpful diagrams, but the complexity of the various laser technologies, in conjunction with the competing scientist personalities and governmental programs, can cause the narrative to lag. This book should be appreciated by Cold War aficionados and science enthusiasts alike, but may be too heavy for the average history fan. Agent: Laura Wood, FinePrint Literary Management.

November 1, 2018
A veteran science and technology writer delivers an insider's account of the military's obsession with laser weapons.First, New Scientist contributor Hecht (Beam: The Race to Make the Laser, 2005, etc.), the author of multiple scholarly books on lasers, delivers an amusing account of fictional death rays from Archimedes to Tesla to Hollywood. All of these are "updated versions of the mythic bolts hurled by mythic ancient gods, born more than a century ago...when scientists were puzzling over new discoveries from X-rays to radio waves, inventors were seeking new weapons of war, and storytellers were looking for thrilling new ways to entertain." In 1960, a properly stimulated ruby emitted the first tiny laser beam. The author explains that when a light photon stimulates an atom's electron to jump to a more energetic level and then fall back, it produces an identical photon. With repeated stimulation, massively amplified by mirrors, this light can swell to an intense, narrow beam that carries a great deal of energy. Of course, LASER is an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A torrent of civilian applications followed the initial discovery, and the military began to pay attention. Hecht reminds readers that, struck by a laser beam, a target does not conveniently explode but rather gets hotter. Industrial lasers burn holes in metal held immobile a few inches away. Generating a beam capable of hitting, following, and destroying a speeding rocket hundreds of miles distant seems wacky, but readers may recall that this was the "Star Wars" anti-missile system launched by Ronald Reagan in 1983 and officially abandoned in 1993. All was not lost, however. Wildly expensive research produced technical advances, and lasers continue to grow more powerful, efficient, and compact. Now in field testing, powerful beams have destroyed small boats, shot down drones, and punched holes in vehicles.An occasionally choppy but intriguing and informative history of laser weapons.

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