Science: Fantastic Red Spot

It appeared as a mere spot of red light flashed last week on a screen. But scientists of Bell Telephone Laboratories at Murray Hill. N.J. are sure their new gadget, called a maser. from which the light came, will lead to astonishing things. The waves of red light moved exactly in step; other light is helter-skelter. The waves kept to the same razor-edged frequency; other light is a mixture of frequencies. They formed a slender pencil beam that hardly spread out at all. If they had marched to the moon—240,000 miles—they would have covered less than one twenty-fifth of its face.

The...