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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
Efforts to demonstrate the feasibility of a gamma-ray laser scored major advances in 1987. Culminating with the successes in optically pumping the first of the 29 actual candidate isomers, priority issues were brought into better focus by the lessons learned from a wealth of new results. Perceptions were advanced so greatly that we must reassess the critical issues for 1988. Only the bottom line remains the same. A gamma-ray laser is feasible if the right combination of energy levels occurs in some real material. The likelihood of this favorable arrangement has been markedly increased by the experimental results to date.