The Solution Looking for a Problem [Point of View]

Lasers have enabled 26 Nobel prizes, in physics, chemistry, and medicine; the continuing research of these Nobelists and others will enable more and more applications. We will see numerous further scientific advances aided by lasers, particularly in biology and medicine, and we will see more Nobel prizes to add to those already attributable to the laser. While the days of inventing new lasers are mostly over, the days of scientists and engineers using them will continue and grow. As with their unseen presence in the Internet, lasers will become an increasingly important, but invisible, part of the technologies that we use everyday.