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It was strange, in a way, because there were no ideas involved in the laser that weren't already known by somebody 25 years before lasers were discovered. The ideas were all there; just, nobody put it together.

There are relatively few experiments in atomic physics these days that don't involve the use of a laser.

Many researchers have joined the field and applied the LED to many new markets such as mobile phone screens, LED TV, and LED Lighting.

The main ingredient of the first quantum revolution, wave-particle duality, has led to inventions such as the transistor and the laser that are at the root of the information society.

The real technical problems came because people working on the project didn't really follow my proposal at all, but set out to do other things instead of making a laser.

I've always been a bit of an inventor, just making up weird things people haven't thought of before. I can't tell you exactly what, though, because they might actually happen one day!

I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

My training and my inclination is to invent.

Nobody really invents anything that hasn't been done before.