In 2005, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to a German physicist named Theodor W. Hänsch for developing the first optical frequency comb synthesizer. This groundbreaking invention allowed scientists to begin measuring light wave frequencies at an extremely high level of precision unmatched by existing technologies. In addition to its accuracy, optical frequency combs can also measure very high frequencies that other detectors cannot. Together, these two properties make optical frequency combs useful for a variety of applications, such as optical clocks and laser calibration.