

Laser inventor and Nobel laureate Charles Townes dies at 99 - jhull
https://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/01/27/nobel-laureate-and-laser-inventor-charles-townes-dies-at-99/

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chiph
I met him when he was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1978,
and got his autograph on the program. Really a nice man - very self-effacing
and gracious.

The Berkeley memoriam talks about his work with masers and lasers, but also
mentions his contributions to the beginnings of infrared astronomy, and the
evidence for a black hole being in the center of our galaxy. He really had
wide-ranging interests and talents.

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footpath
Some discussion from yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8957090](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8957090)

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nthcolumn
Interestingly, he was unable to understand the incompatibility between
religion and science (including his own fundamentalist beliefs), arguing
rather weakly that they are both part of the same thing. One wonders why he
ever bothered to do a single experiment.

To someone downvoting - don't you find it interesting that someone so
brilliant can have such difficulty with simple concepts even a child can
grasp?

