Charles Townes was the co-inventor of the laser and winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics. Jason Rennie of the SciPhi Show had an absolutely marvelous interview with Townes recently. This interview had many quotable gems from Townes.
Here is the link:
Do you have CD player or other optical device which uses a laser? You can credit Townes for that!
Science Daily  SAN FRANCISCO  As part of its participation in the world’s largest technical conference on lasers and electro-optics, here this week, Lucent Technologies is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of the scientific paper that described the concept and design for one of the century’s greatest inventions – the laser
Lasers today are used in communications, medicine, manufacturing, consumer electronics, scientific research and other areas. Telephone conversations, video, Internet traffic and other data are transmitted as beams of laser light through glass fibers, and the capacity of optical networks doubles every 18 months
There is a parallel interview with PZ Myers on the SciPhi show here. This is what PZ said of Townes in Townes and the Templeton Prize:
PZ writes:
Pious frauds are a dime a dozen, but pious frauds who have won a Nobel prize [i.e. Charles Townes]? They’re worth a million and a half dollars.
PZ calls Townes a fraud?
PZ appears to suffer from physics envy. Townes outshines PZ as a scientist and PZ doesn’t hold a candle to him. For that matter Townes towers over PZ, Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Charles Darwin combined. I guess it must get under PZ’s skin that Townes is a greater scientist than PZ. Not just greater, far greater.
PS
[The quote in the title was from Charles Townes on evolution, intelligent design, and the meaning of life ]