the.com/maiman
the man who lit the first laser and got laughed at by physicists who said it couldn't work.
means theodore maiman, the physicist who built the first working laser in 1960 using a ruby crystal, proving every skeptic wrong in one afternoon.
from in may 1960 at hughes research labs, maiman fired a flash lamp around a synthetic ruby rod and got a pulse of coherent red light — the first laser ever, though bell labs and columbia had bigger teams betting against ruby working at all.
rejectionphysical review letters rejected his laser paper first
budgetbuilt it for under 50000 dollars, shoestring by industry standards
nicknamepress called it a solution seeking a problem
snubnobel prize never came, despite decades of nominations