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Maiman's original ruby laser had a flash-tube wrapped spirally around a pricey ruby core.

Shine a ruby laser into a quartz crystal, for example, and a beam of ultraviolet light comes out — albeit dimmer, but still focused like a laser beam.

Dr. Boyle and a co-worker, Don Nelson, developed the ruby laser in 1962.

Ruby laser "It's a remarkable light source, a billion times better than a normal light source," says Professor David Hanna from the Optoelectronics Research Centre at Southampton University.

Just one year later it was being applied in a medical procedure at an American hospital, where a ruby laser was used to destroy an eye tumour.