"For instance, when the first optical laser was developed, a press conference was held, pictures were taken, stories were written, and predictions were made. Then, researchers at other laboratories attempted to reproduce the results, using the photos in the newspaper, which conveniently included a ruler so the scale of the objects could be determined. Try as they might, the copycats could not make their versions work. Finally, they approached the researchers who were successful and asked what trick they had performed to make their laser work properly. The answer was simple; they never did make the laser shown in the picture work, because the rod was too big to get the crystal sufficiently clean. The real laser was much smaller and was not pictured, because the press said it was too tiny for the photographs."

-- John Lester Miller and Ed Friedman, Photonics Rules of Thumb: Optics, Electro-Optics, Fiber Optics and Lasers