Sixty years ago this month, Theodore H. Maiman, a physicist at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, Calif., constructed the first laser using a cylinder of synthetic ruby and photographic flash lamps. There have been many milestones in the last six decades. In honor of this breakthrough, Photonics Media will be running periodic coverage throughout the month.EMMETT WARREN, NEWS EDITOR [email protected]PITTSFIELD, Mass., May 29, 2020 — As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the laser, Photonics Media takes a look back at how the technology has been displayed in popular culture over the last 60 years. Some might be surprised that the first reference to a direct-energy weapon came much earlier, in 1897. H.G. Wells wrote of the Martians in his novel The War of the Worlds: “In some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. 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