What’s A Maser?

Reading “Amazing Light” (by Joan Lisa Bromberg) in the Spring 1992 issue, I was reminded of a seminar I attended in about 1964 for MIT graduates. Charles Townes spoke and described the development of the maser. However, instead of using the usual technical definition—Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation—he advised us of a more practical definition: Method for Arriving at Support for Expensive Research.

Thanks for an elegant article in a thoroughly attractive magazine.

John R. M. Alger
Rumney, N.H.