World-leading researchers, including Nobel Laureates, explore the most basic questions of science, philosophy, and the nature of existence.

This Festschrift is a collection of essays contributed by students, colleagues, and ad- mirers to honor an eminent scholar on a special anniversary: Charles Hard Townes on the occasion of his 80th birthday, July 28, 1995. In 1964, Townes shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov and Nikolai Gen- nadyevich Basov "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle. " His contributions have covered a much wider area, however. His fruitful interests spanning...