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A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age
by Bruce Watson
Book Reviewed by:Although lasers now perform everyday miracles, light retains its eternal allure. "For the rest of my life," Einstein said, "I will reflect on what light is." Light explores and celebrates such curiosity.
Light begins at Stonehenge, where crowds cheer a solstice sunrise. After sampling myths explaining First Light, the story moves on to early philosophers' queries, then through the centuries, from Buddhist temples to Biblical scripture, when light was the soul of the divine.
Battling darkness and despair, Gothic architects crafted radiant cathedrals while Dante dreamed a "heaven of pure light." Later, following Leonardo's advice, Renaissance artists learned to capture light on canvas. During the Scientific Revolution, Galileo gathered light in his telescope, Descartes measured the rainbow, and Newton used prisms to solidify the science of optics. But even after Newton, light was an enigma. Particle or wave? Did it flow through an invisible "ether"? Through the age of Edison and into the age of lasers, Light reveals how light sparked new wonders -relativity, quantum electrodynamics, fiber optics, and more.
"We eat light, drink it in through our skins."
--James Turrell, Light and Space artist
INTRODUCTION
Galileo was bewildered. Toward the end of his life, a life that witnessed wondrous light none had seen before, the great scientist confessed one failure. Decades had passed since a friend had given him several of the stones Italians called "solar sponges." Soaking up sunlight, emitting a soft green glow, the stones convinced Galileo that Aristotle had been wrong about light. It was not some warm, ethereal element. Light could be as cold as the moon and as corporeal as water. But what was it?
Over the years, Galileo had learned to reflect light, to bend it, to amaze observers with telescopes that spotted ships two hours sail from Venice. Turning his telescope toward the night sky, he had been the first to see the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. Later he proposed the first experiment to clock the speed of light, bouncing ...
Watson's writing style keeps the narrative moving and his readers entertained. Readers already familiar with the science may find that Light doesn't provide much new information, but those with only basic knowledge and a curiosity about the natural world will find it a delight...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Charles C. Mann, author of the New York Times bestsellers 1491 and 1493
Bruce Watson's new book ... has the buoyant tone of a writer who is having fun - and who is able to convey that sense of excitement and discovery to the reader. Light, the phenomenon, has fascinated people for millennia. Light, the book, will fascinate them now.In Light, author Bruce Watson references the Lighthouse of Alexandria as one of the first instances where light was used in a large-scale manner for a practical purpose.
Alexander the Great built the city of Alexandria, Egypt, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in 331 BCE, and as part of the subsequent construction had a stone extension constructed to Pharos, a small island nearby. Called a "mole," this .75 mile long causeway became a breakwater for the port, creating a protected harbor for the city. Alexander's successor, Ptolemy I Soter, commissioned a lighthouse on the island — later simply called the Pharos — that would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and be the archetype for all lighthouses ...
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If you liked Light, try these:
by Josh Weil
Published 2018
A dazzling new work that spans a century and eight tales of light, human progress, and the search for a better life from Josh Weil, one of "the most gifted writers of his generation" (Colum McCann), winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
by Ruth Kassinger
Published 2015
In the tradition of The Botany of Desire and Wicked Plants, a witty and engaging history of the first botanists interwoven with stories of today's extraordinary plants found in the garden and the lab.
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