From Rubber Balls to Atoms

Abstract

Scientists are often amongst the first beneficiaries of new technology. Long before lasers were employed in cheap CD players, physicists were using them to study the intimate details of the structure of matter, and even to manipulate objects. Long before there was a computer on everybody’s desk, chemists were using them to calculate the behaviour of atoms in a crystal, and mathematicians to crack enemy codes. And long before Hollywood turned films into a billion-dollar business, scientists were using movie cameras to study the middle world.