Science writer Jeff Hecht joins the show. He has written Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon. The laser—a milestone invention of the mid-twentieth century—quickly captured the imagination of the Pentagon as the key to the ultimate weapon. 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.
