Charles H. Townes was awarded a share of the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery in 1951 of the maser , a device that can amplify microwaves for practical applications. About six years later, Townes speculated on the possibility of building a maser-like instrument using solid crystals instead of gases. A device of this kind--the laser --was actually constructed two years afterwards by Theodore Maiman.

Charles Hard Townes was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on July 28, 1915. His father was Henry Keith Townes, an attorney, and his mother was the former Ellen Sumter Hard. Townes grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment in which both parents had an avid interest in natural history. He later told Shirley Thomas in a sketch for the book Men of Space that "there was always an inclination toward science" in his family. He was convinced that had the opportunity been available, his father "would...