In 1972 at the 84th meeting of ASA, a similarly titled review paper was presented by this author. Since that time, the field has progressed from very early beginnings and speculations to the point where there now appears to be some well‐defined applications and advantages of the technique. In addition, a scanning laser acoustic microscope (SLAM) has become available commercially. Placed in the hands of biomedical and materials scientists, the SLAM becomes an important analytical tool for revealing aspects of microstructure which are not obtainable by optical or electron microscopes. In particular, the varying elastic properties of materials, e.g., compressibility and density, at the microscopic‐size level are sensitive parameters upon which to differentiate structure. Applications of the SLAM to materials science, nondestructive testing, and biomedical research will be examined.