On the laser’s 50th birthday, physicists assert that the discovery’s usefulness has far further to go, despite already underpinning some of the last half century’s most disruptive technologies (not least, the optical fibers which make today’s high speed internet possible). While we can now find lasers in every industry from manufacturing, retail and medicine to entertainment and communications, lasers are also being developed for much more, such as personalised medical treatment and the production of virtually infinite, clean energy from nuclear fusion.