Combat Lasers. The Hunt for Superweapons

Barcode readers and printers, target designators and rangefinders, new-generation surgical scalpels, and even cold fusion. All this works with the help of a laser, a unique invention of the brilliant Soviet physicists Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov. In the mid-1950s, they designed an optical quantum generator, which served as the basis for the creation of combat lasers.

• Sergey AyrapetyanDirector