The first thing I thought of when reading the title of this post is Adaptive Optics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A

The first thing I thought of when reading the title of this post is Adaptive Optics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics). When I was told the idea of using a mirror which could reposition itself thousands of times a second to correct for atmospheric disturbances I had an initial gut reaction of "this will never work". There just seemed like there was too much which could go wrong or would have to be compensated for. Of course I was completely wrong - the technology works brilliantly and along side telescopes is now being used in microscopes, medicine and weapons!