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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: how the laser happened
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 23:53:24 +1000
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On 25/06/2024 6:13 am, john larkin wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Jun 2024 16:47:57 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs
> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
> 
>> john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:22:06 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs
>>> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 22:09:42 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs
>>>>> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 18:08:52 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs
>>>>>>> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:39:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
>>>>>>>>> <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 05:03:34 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> On a sunny day (Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:23:40 -0000 (UTC)) it happened
>>>>>>>>>>> Cursitor Doom <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote in
>>>>>>>>>>> <v571as$3rs0j$2@dont-email.me>:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> On Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:19:49 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:32:56 -0700) it happened john
>>>>>>>>>>>>> larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote in
>>>>>>>>>>>>> <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com>:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:56:36 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:05:21 -0700, john larkin <jl@650pot.com>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> wrote:

<snip>

> Living things can certainly pump up molecular energy states to make
> visible light. Why couldn't they produce the population inversions
> that enable stimulated emission and optical gain?
> 
> Why wouldn't they?

Evolution proceeds by making random changes. The changes that survive 
have all had to work better than the system that preceded them.

Creatures that fluoresce use the light they generate to their advantage, 
but it costs them energy to create it. Creating a population inversion 
costs a lot more energy than exciting a few molecules, and it isn't 
likely to do anything useful when it crops up at random.

It's like error-detecting and correcting codes - our genome should 
exploit them, but doesn't, because getting half-way there doesn't 
generate an advantage.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney


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