The Inventor Charles Townes Laser beam

Charles Townes born in Greenville, South Carolina, July 28, 1915. He graduated from Furman University before obtaining a bachelor's degree from Duke University and Caltech. He was also previously a research engineer at Bell Laboratories during World War II. Later he taught at Columbia University and MIT. In 1961 he began researching the field of optics that produce award-world. After taking a postgraduate degree at Duke University and California Institute of Technology, between the years 1939-1947 worked at Bell Laboratories to design a bomber that controlled radar system. Then he worked at Columbia University in the Physics Department.

In 1951 while sitting on a park bench, the idea of ​​the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation or microwaves reinforcement by stimulated emission of radiation) came to mind as a way to generate high-intensity microwaves, and in 1953 the first maser start working. In this device ammonia molecule is raised to the excited vibrational levels then inserted into the resonant cavity; here, as in lasers, stimulated emission induced to produce the same wavelength photons, in this case equal to 1.25 cm in the microwave spectrum. "Atomic clock" high berketelitian made according to this concept, and the strengthening of the solid maser is used also in fields such radioastronomi.

In 1958 Townes and Arthur Schawlow has attracted the attention of people through a paper that suggested that a similar scheme could be implemented in the optical wavelength region. Previously, Gordon Gould, a graduate student at Columbia University have concluded the same thing, but he did not publish the results of calculations on the spot, because he is seeking a patent.

Charles Townes is a joint inventor of the laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and winner of the Nobel Prize for physics. He made headlines again last week because of the religious field has won the annual prize of the greatest value.

Townes is now aged 89 years and became a teacher, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He received the Templeton Prize is the Prize for research and development of spiritual discovery. This gift alone is worth 795,000 pounds sterling, or about 14 billion dollars. He is credited with the theme of the talks and writings critical role of science and religion.

Townes first time to pursue this topic in 1964, the same year when he received the Nobel Prize for laser and maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) along with two researchers from Russia. His first topic in this field presented in the Bible class for men at the Riverside Church, New York. His talk is published by IBM's Think magazine, and in the alumni magazine MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). But these publications and articles aftershocks opposition from other alumni at MIT. Similarly, religious tendencies Townes opposition from backers doctorate at the California Institute of Technology.

"Many do not realize that science is also based on assumptions and beliefs. Nothing can be proven absolutely," said Townes. "The findings beautiful in science and religion come from our efforts to observation, in-depth assumption, belief and logic." He cited the inspiration he gets on the maser while sitting on a park bench in Washington DC with Revelation in the Bible. The findings in the field of physics also suggests that the small possibility of the existence of life is an accident. This raises questions about whether the religious universe has also been planned.