e-branch
Login
My List - 0
Help
Home
My Account/Renew Loans
Community Info
KidSearch
New Catalogue!
Search
Advanced
By Format
By Number
My Searches
Can't Find it?
Find Magazine Articles & more
Problems?
Search:
Title Starts with...
Title Keyword(s)
Author/Performer/Name (Last,First)
Author/Performer/Name Keyword(s)
Subject Starts with...
Subject Keyword(s)
Series Starts with...
Series Keyword(s)
Anyword/Anywhere
List Name Keyword(s)
Refine Search
> You're searching:
Halifax Public Libraries
Item Information
Copy / Holding Information
Publisher Weekly Review
Table of Contents
More Content
More by this author
Hecht, Jeff.
Subjects
Laser weapons -- History.
Laser weapons -- Design and construction.
Browse Catalog
by author:
Hecht, Jeff.
by title:
Lasers, death rays, ...
by call number:
623.446 H447L
Search the Web
Hecht, Jeff.
Laser weapons -- History.
Laser weapons -- Design and construction.
MARC Display
Lasers, death rays, and the long, strange quest for the ultimate weapon / Jeff Hecht.
by
Hecht, Jeff.
Prometheus Books, 2019.
Call #:
623.446 H447L
Subjects
Laser
weapons
--
History.
Laser
weapons
--
Design
and
construction
.
ISBN:
9781633884601 (hc.)
Description:
295 p., 8 unnumbered pages of plates : col. ill.; 24 cm.
Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-279) and index.
Contents:
Death rays: from thunder gods to mad scientists
--
How the Pentagon almost invented the
laser
--
The incredible rocket-engine
laser
--
Space lasers on the high frontier
--
The "Star Wars" wars
--
The airborne
laser
gets off the ground
--
Back to the battlefield against insurgents
--
Laser
weapons
go solid-state
--
The quest for the ultimate weapon.
Summary:
The laser--a milestone invention of the mid-twentieth century--quickly captured the imagination of the Pentagon as the key to the ultimate weapon. Veteran science writer Jeff Hecht tells the inside story of the adventures and misadventures of scientists and military strategists as they exerted Herculean though often futile efforts to adapt the
laser
for military uses. From the 1950s' sci-fi vision of the "death ray," through the Reagan administration's "Star Wars" missile defense system, to more promising developments today, Hecht provides an entertaining history. As the author illustrates, there has always been a great deal of enthusiasm and false starts surrounding lasers. He describes a giant
laser
that filled a Boeing 747, lasers powered like rocket engines, plans for an orbiting fleet of robotic
laser
battle stations to destroy nuclear missiles, claims that nuclear bombs could produce intense X-ray
laser
beams, and a scheme to bounce
laser
beams off giant orbiting relay mirrors. Those far-out ideas remain science fiction. Meanwhile, in civilian sectors, the
laser
is already being successfully used in fiber optic cables, scanners, medical devices, and industrial cutting tools. Now those
laser
cutting tools are leading to a new generation of
laser
weapons
that just might stop insurgent rockets. Replete with interesting characters, bizarre schemes, and wonderful inventions, this is a well-told tale about the evolution of technology and the reaches of human ambition.
Holds:
0
Copy/Holding information
Location
Collection
Call No.
Item type
Status
Cole Harbour Public Library
Adult Nonfiction
623.446 H447L
Adult books
Checked in
Add Copy to MyList
Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M
© 2001-2013
SirsiDynix
All rights reserved.