SCIENCE-FICTION’S RAY-GUN ALREADY ON TRIAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 8

SCIENCE-FICTION’S RAY-GUN ALREADY ON TRIAL

It Will Keep On Mapping The Moon

(Bi/ HLGH DE COURCY, in London) gCIENCE-fiction writers often have a dis- , concerting knack of being uncannily accurate when it comes to forecasting the future. But few people, even in their wildest dreams, could ever have expected to be alive for the age of the ray-gun.

Yet at this moment fantasy is very close to becoming fact. American research teams have produced a unique gadget which emits a beam of light so intense that it reduces a piece of carbon to smoke in a millionth of a second.

The device—a Maser —has stirred up more scientific interest than anything yet produced by electronic development. Quite what its effect will be on our lives has not yet been fully assessed. The Maser is so new that many of its proposed uses have not gone further than the laboratory stage. But what is known is that if you introduce the Maser into radar equipment, it is possible to study details of an object the size of a kitchen stove from eight miles away.

The Maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emiss.on of radiation) started life as a specially-designed gasfilled tube which amplified gas atoms. They, in turn, gave off their excess energy in the form of radio microwaves or light

Atoms contain varying amounts of energy; some have h.gh-energy levels and some have very low ones. But, by outside interference, the energy status of the atoms can be changed.

In other words, stimulate a low-energy atom, and it absorbs the stimulus to become a high-energy atom. A highenergy atom subjected to stimulation might have its energy removed. That, briefly, is the working secret of this ultra-mod-em device. One of the first tests was in 1954, when microwave signals were fired into ammonia gas. a substance known to brim over with higlj-energy atoms. The successful experiment resulted into the microwaves being greatly strengthened.

Ultra-Sharp Signals

Unlike the vacuum tube and the transistor, both of which amplify electric current, the Maser amplifies electromagnetic waves, and is the first true amplifier of radio waves or light ever invented.

As well as amplifying radio and light waves, Masers are able to produce signals that are ultra-sharp, and many

thousands of times more intense.

On the practical side, that would mean that a Maser's light-producing beam could be intensified so much that it could be focused through a hole 30 millionths of an inch in diameter.

All very well, one might say, but what good is that going to do? Medicine and surgery will have a ready answer for this question. Intricate operations will be made easier for the surgeon of tomorrow. It is accurate to say that, in the light of present experiments, tomorrow’s surgeon will be equipped with a Maser as well as a scalpel. Scientists have already been able to use a Maser to remove eye tumours in rabbits. They do it by turning the powerful but minute beam into the eye. Since the light beam hits a very small area for only one-thousands of a second, no damage is made. Crudely, one could say the Maser’s ray would weld body tissues. Further experiments have shown it can be used for instant blood-vessel cauterisation, and in many branches of deep and abdominal surgery. Constant Beam Masers are also ideal for communications. Their operations are in the highestknown frequencies of electrowaves.

Furthermore, they are constant, for a Maser beam stays on a single frequency, whereas radio beams bounce over many frequencies. Not only does this mean more radio frequencies resulting in more messages, but it makes possible the realisation of a scientists’ dream.

A trans-Atlantic telephone cable could be capable of dealing with thousands of calls simultaneously over the same line. At present, no more than 100 calls are handled.

Since the Maser's light waves are not as readily absorbed by water as radio waves, there is the possibility of underwater communication between submarines and exploration craft. This goes even further. By employing the Maser, it is hoped to make more accurate records of the ocean bottom.

The Maser is fast pushing the world into the new space age. Washington's Naval Research Laboratory reports that a Maser has picked up radio signals from stars three times beyond the range of other amplifying equipment. By using a Maser, it is also possible to pick up the signals given off by man-made satellites circling the Earth. This development holds great promise for both future space exploration and defence. Further, there is the possibility of Masers being able to improve radar performance.

Undoubtedly, the first reliable maps of the moon will be produced from Maser evidence. Radio or light beams amplified by Masers and bounced off the moon will be picked up and further amplified by equipment on the earth.

Fantastic as it may seem, it has even been suggested that future space satellites that go off course may be redirected by Maser control. What Russian research is achieving is little known, but Maser development there must also be forging ahead. For any country advanced in space and rocket research has great need of the Maser. It all adds up to one thing: as more and more men are shot into space, the eyes of the world will be watching. So will the Maser. —(Central Press Features, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)