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National Geographic : 1966 Dec
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Feeling the face of beauty, fast-moving beam from the laser, right, scans its subject sixty times a second, producing a remark ably clear picture on the screen. This TV, developed by Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Norwalk, Connecticut, needs no additional illumination. It may guard warehouses in the dark or photograph night news events. cut away the malignant growth in 15 minutes. Although many blood vessels were severed, not one bled, because the laser heat cauter ized as it cut. A doctor who heard me speak about laser surgery came up to me afterward and said: "What you have told us is the dream of my life. Always I have wanted a knife that would seal off bleeding. If I were younger, I would devote my life to the perfection of the laser knife. What wonders the laser may do with the liver, the lungs, the heart, or the brain, where hemorrhage is so dangerous!" In their early experiments doctors used primitive laser equipment. More recently, greatly improved lasers have been developed and are being delivered to laboratories and hospitals for further experimental work. Ruby Eye Scans the Heavens In the Sacramento Mountains near Cloud croft, New Mexico, a laser keeps a ruby eye peeled for missiles and satellites. Operated by the Air Force Systems Command, this instru ment fires a searching laser beam hundreds of times finer (or narrower) than radar, picks up the reflected signals with an optical tele scope, and measures the distance to the target. As with microwave radar, the time each pulsed signal takes to go to the target and re turn reveals the distance automatically. At 500 miles, radar can determine the dis tance within an error of about 100 feet; the laser narrows the error to about 25 feet. More over, the laser range finder, which requires a 874
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