On Thursday, February 26, Carroll College Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy  Kelly Cline presents, "Lasers: On Earth and Beyond," at 7 p.m. in Carroll College's Simperman Hall Wiegand Amphitheater, room 101-202. Free and open to the public.

What is a laser and how is laser light different from ordinary light?  Lasers are at the heart of so much modern technology, from CD and DVD players, to our long distance telephone and data lines which use lasers to transmit information through fiber optic cables.  But how does a laser work?  In this talk, Dr. Cline will explore the amazing discovery made by Einstein that revolutionized our understanding of light, and opened the door to the possibilities of laser science. "Ordinary light is made of particles called photons with each photon being randomly given off by a different atom," Cline says. "However, in laser light, photons are not randomly given off, but instead one photon causes an atom to give off another photon that is perfectly aligned and in step with the first one. In this way, the photons in a beam of laser light are all working together, making them far more effective than a collection of randomly emitted photons." In his talk, Cline will show how laser light is transforming astronomy, creating a whole new generation of telescopes that can compensate for the turbulence in our atmosphere that makes the stars twinkle. "Even more exciting," Cline adds, "we will learn how astronomers have discovered certain conditions where microwave-lasers are created naturally by comets, in the atmospheres of giant planets, and in distant galaxies in material that is swirling into supermassive black holes."