Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Beginnings

It was Albert Einstein who, in 1917, proved that the process of emission of any radiation (light included), could be stimulated by 'provoking' an atom to 'jump' from one orbit to the next one. The result of this jump is a release of an 'energy packet' virtually the same as the electron itself. This is called a 'photon' (a luminous electron).

Its release is light itself.

It was in the 50's when this theory could be reproduced in an experimental model. Townes designed the first systems that amplified radiations, using it in the microwave spectrum and therefore they were called MASER.

In 1958 Bosov and Projorov in the USSR do the same thing but with light instead of microwaves and in 1960, Theodore Maiman builds the first ruby laser in the Hughes Aircraft Corp. laboratories.

In 1962 gas lasers based on CO2, Helium, Neon etc. are created for uses in industry, communications, engineering, information technology, show business and since 1965, they are used in medicine.

Professor Injucshin from the University of Alma Atta in the USSR and professor Mester in Budapest, are the first to explore the beginnings of what today we know as Lasertherapy.

In the following posts we will try to expand, hopefully in clear and simple concepts, the physical bases that explain the very special way this light changes living tissues.