{"id":281,"date":"2012-12-17T12:33:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T18:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/?p=281"},"modified":"2012-12-17T12:33:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T18:33:44","slug":"the-benefits-of-science-lasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/2012\/12\/17\/the-benefits-of-science-lasers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Science – Lasers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to begin to combat the sad state of US education, where scientists are considered untrustworthy<\/a>, I’ve decided to do some blog posts on the history of particular scientific\/technological advancements.<\/p>\n

A creationist recently argued <\/a>that<\/p>\n

Science did not\/does not produce \u2018all the wonderful substance of life\u2019. Technology did\/does. Why do you(pl) continually conflate the two? Is it purposeful or simple ignorance?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which, almost everyone immediately replied,<\/p>\n

If there were no \u201cscience\u201d, there would be no new \u201csubstance\u201d for \u201ctechnology\u201d to exploit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have, in the past, had to explain why money needs to be spent in fundamental science research.\u00a0 That is, research that doesn’t have an immediately obvious benefit.\u00a0 Applied research is research that can have an immediate benefit.\u00a0 This is the difference between materials research to find a better semiconductor for solar panels and the Large Hadron Collider looking for the Higgs boson.<\/p>\n

Without fundamental research into basic science, we can’t even know how things work to improve them.\u00a0 Think about a relatively simple device like lasers.\u00a0 We are now using them in thousands of devices, from cat toys to robotic welding systems, from mice to hard disk drives and fiber optic communication.\u00a0 Yet, we wouldn’t have lasers without some fundamental research that was carried out decades before computers were even thought up.<\/p>\n

My mother recently had cataract surgery.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the surgery didn’t go well and she had some blood leaking into her eye.\u00a0 So, the doctor used a laser to repair the damage.\u00a0 So, let’s take a look at the history of both cataracts and laser surgery.<\/p>\n

\n
CE 29<\/dt>\n
first references to cataracts<\/a> and treatment in Ancient Rome.<\/dd>\n
CE 200<\/dt>\n
Early cataract surgery described by Indian physician<\/dd>\n
CE 1000<\/dt>\n
Muslim ophthalmologist<\/a> writes of his invention of the hypodermic needle and the technique of cataract extraction<\/dd>\n
1917<\/dt>\n
Einstein<\/a> publishes On the Quantum Theory of Radiation<\/em> (in German)<\/dd>\n
1960<\/dt>\n
Theodore Maiman<\/a> operates the first functioning laser<\/a> (Hughes Research Lab)<\/dd>\n
1942<\/dt>\n
My mother is born<\/dd>\n
1964<\/dt>\n
William Bridges (Hughes Aircraft) invents the argon laser<\/dd>\n
1970<\/dt>\n
Excimer<\/a> laser patented for vision correction<\/dd>\n
1987<\/dt>\n
Steven Trokel<\/a> performs the first laser surgery on a patient\u2019s eyes<\/dd>\n
1987<\/dt>\n
John Crew<\/a> first uses lasers to seal damaged blood vessels<\/dd>\n
2010<\/dt>\n
My mother first diagnosed with cataracts<\/dd>\n
2012<\/dt>\n
Mother\u2019s second surgery for cataracts and complications set in<\/dd>\n
2012<\/dt>\n
Use of an argon laser to seal blood vessels damaged by cataract surgery saves my mother\u2019s vision in one eye.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Now, look very carefully at what all happened.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about almost 2000 years of research.\u00a0 Yes, the first 1500 or so years of research were undirected and confusing.\u00a0 But there were people looking (no pun intended) into this kind of think.\u00a0 The eyes and how they work and how to fix them when there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

Look in the early 1900s.\u00a0 Einstein produced a paper of pure, fundamental science.\u00a0 Without that single paper, every that happened later couldn\u2019t have happened.\u00a0 This is why we must have pure research, without a specific goal. Someone, even now, may be writing the paper that will eventually allow us to exceed the speed of light or live forever.<\/p>\n

Now consider that Einstein wasn\u2019t an ophthalmologist or even a doctor.\u00a0 Maiman and Bridges weren\u2019t doctors.\u00a0 But finally, a doctor read about this cool new tech called Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation<\/em> and thought, \u201cI wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, for all intents and purposes, our modern society couldn’t exist without lasers<\/a>. Yet, the principles that described them were developed by pure research 50 years before the first laser fired.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to begin to combat the sad state of US education, where scientists are considered untrustworthy, I’ve decided to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,58,53,89,6,45,10],"tags":[195,194,197,196],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creationism","category-medicine","category-physics","category-research-2","category-science","category-society","category-technology","tag-benefits-of-science","tag-lasers","tag-pure-research","tag-technology-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}