Understanding lasers

It has been suggested that the first introduction that many people had to the idea of the laser was in a well publicised sequence from a James Bond film in the early 1960s. The effects of a powerful laser have also been compared with the `death ray¿ in H. G. Well´s book `The War of the Worlds¿. However, a laser is not the science fiction fan´s ultimate weapon of destruction, but rather a sophisticated item of scientific equipment with an ever-growing range of applications.