Changing the World from the Lab Bench
Stephen R. Forrest, Vice President for Research
July 27, 2010
I recently returned from a long and grueling trip. It started out in Karlsruhe, Germany, then on to Shanghai, Korea, Japan, and finally, home. Part of this round-the-world trip was focused on university business that included the announcement that kicked off joint research programs with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in biomedical technologies and in renewable energy. And, while I was in Shanghai, an exciting trip to the World Expo thrown in for good measure.
But one event stood out most strongly in my mind, and got me to thinking about the importance of what we do in our research and scholarship. That was the event in Karlsruhe where the Optical Society of America was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser. Two Nobel Laureates gave talks to a packed auditorium: Charles Townes, often referred to as the father of the laser, and Theodor Hänsch who has made a career out of using lasers to revolutionize the world of spectroscopy, now employed to measure phenomena from the nano to the astronomical scales.
The reason that this event stuck with me has less to do with the laser itself, but more about transformations of our lives during the 20th and 21st Centuries due to new ideas, and inventions. The invention of the laser is one of those transformative events — the world following that invention is completely different than what existed before. The laser has literally changed the course of human life on this planet. It has enabled a revolution in communications through fiber optics, which has then given us, among other things, the internet. Almost every household in America today depends on lasers to read their CDs and DVDs. Lasers allowed the implementation of the most accurate clocks ever constructed, and of course there are always laser light shows to entertain us! I could go on, but the point is clear. Lasers changed the world.
But there are many other world-changing inventions and events that occurred during the last century that have made the world of the past unrecognizable to us now. Edison and Tesla introduced electricity into our everyday lives, moving us from the horse-and-buggy era into modern times. The airplane, the transistor, the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines have all had a profound impact on the course of the human condition. It seems that the pace of these advances are occurring more frequently than ever.
As researchers and scholars, it is abundantly clear. We do make a difference, sometimes with very positive impacts, and almost as often, with unintended negative consequences. We can, and do transform the world, from inventing nuclear weapons to creating revolutionary methods for linking people together, from inventing the internal combustion engine to warming the planet. It certainly makes me wonder: what’s next? And when will we recognize that yet another transformation has occurred?
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