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Light Years: An Exploration of Mankind's Enduring Fascination with Light
by Brian Clegg
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (2007-11-13)
ISBN: 0230527256
EAN: 9780230527256
Dewy Decimal #: 535
Paperback: 300 pages
Condition: Acceptable
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Brian Clegg is fascinated by light, and his sense of wonder comes across clearly in the engagingly written Light Years. He takes us on a tour of the human exploration of light, from early Chinese and Greek philosophers through Arabic and medieval European investigations to the most recent scientific breakthroughs, pausing on the way to admire how artists such as Turner and Manet incorporated ideas about light into their work. Light has many crucial functions: sunlight is the source of all life on Earth; the speed of light is fundamental to Einstein's theory of special relativity; a constant exchange of photons within atoms helps keep matter stable. It's a fascinating subject, and Clegg clearly explains the evolving theories of the nature of light, covering the work of dozens of scientists. In a series of refreshingly lively short biographies, he animates their varied lives and places their research into historical context, as light's complex nature was gradually revealed and some of its power harnessed. From photography to lasers, light has opened up vast realms of technical possibilities--from fibre optic communications to holographic storage of data. Recent research activity has seen light slowed down almost to a standstill, while others have even pushed light beams faster than Einstein's absolute-maximum speed limit of 300,000 kilometres per second. It seems certain that light will play a major part in the technologies of the 21st century, and this book may well whet the reader's appetite to learn more. --Elizabeth Sourbut
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Customer Reviews
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Light Years: The Extraordinary Story of Mankind's Fascinatio
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-02-28
Reading this popular science book has been a very enjoyable experience. The combination of facts about light and information about the historical setting of those involved in unravelling the mystery of light make the book very readable and memorable. Brian Clegg illustrates how a wide variety people with all sorts of backgrounds from all corners of the world have been fascinated by lights misteries, demonstrating that besides the well known Newton and Einstein there have been many more individuals that have contributed to our current knowledge and understanding of light. Buy it and read it!
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The history of man's fascination with light
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-11-19
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Written in an easy, flowing style, Mr.Clegg's book is full of interesting and apposite facts about light and the people who gave us the basis of our current understanding. A master storyteller, he does not pontificate or try to blind the reader with science, rather, he opens our eyes to the possibilities afforded by that science - describing it all in layman's terms, but definitely not patronising or 'dumbing-down'.The first chapter is a taster of the future potential of experimentation with light, outlining some tremendous possibilities. Then we are treated to an overview of the perception of light by the ancients, whose theories were taken as gospel during the Dark Ages and only began to be questioned in the Middle Ages - but even then heresy loomed large for anyone trying to usurp the accepted 'facts'.
Continuing, potted biographies of the greats of science; Bacon, Davinci, Galileo, Descartes, Newton et al, give us a clearer picture of the problems that the new wave of scientists faced. Then we get into the meat of the problem - what is light made of? (which is still not fully answered). Fascinating insights into recent and modern theory and fact leaves one's mind boggling, trying to contain the concepts, speeds and distances involved. Immensely readable, I encourage anyone with even a passing interest in light, science or history to read this book - they will be rewarded by a new persective of the world. ****
As further reading, I also recommend 'Unweaving the Rainbow' by Richard Dawkins.
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enlightening reading
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-11-05
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Light Years takes you through the history of the study of light and the scientific, philosophical, artistic, and even ontological issues it addresses. This is not a boring, academic account, but a truely interesting and horizon widening book. As someone with an interest in light, but by no means any scientific knowledge of it, I recommend Light Years to anyone who wants to know more about the stuff that surrounds us all.
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LOW WATTAGE ILLUMINATION
Rating  (1)
Date: 2002-01-22
9 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
.In our book stores there has been has a dramatic increase in shelf space dedicated to pop-science books in the last few years. "Light Years" is very typical of the genre. There's no math to frighten the innumerate and everything is written in challenge-free language. The average tabloid newspaper browser with the reading age of a 12-year-old would be comfortable with this book. The scope of this book could not be broader. It's "everything you want to know about light", written from a historical perspective. It takes us from the wisdom of the ancients, through the insights of Galileo and Newton and ultimately to the exciting possibilities of our post-Einsteinian world. With all this ground to cover, Brain Clegg never really attempts to penetrate or take his topic apart, but rather he just skates around the surface. With his lightweight journalistic style, he sees his role as closer to entertainer rather than educator. There is no serious attempt at elucidation (shedding of light) beyond a feint, superficial illumination. The structure of the book is in the form of a chronological series of potted biographies of the great luminaries. The author obviously found himself a "Boy's Own Bumper Book" of amazing scientific history and strung together all the references he could find on light and optics. It's very formulaic and it shows. There's not an original insight, in sight. It is acknowledged that there is a well-deserved place for popular science books in the market place. The real test of their effectiveness is their ability to build a reader's curiosity and to generate a desire to explore a subject in more depth. Instead, after reading this book, you feel bloated as if you have just ingested a big bucket of popcorn. It's all sugar coated literary carbohydrate. Your appetite for the science of optics is blunted, but not satisfied, just like at the movies, you are still in the dark, and the lights have yet to come up. When considering this book claims to explore the possibility of time travel, we have to work our way to the last few chapters before the strange world of quantum phenomena is even touched on. We get a few titillating references to some recent breakthroughs in "superluminary" phenomena but it is all very tentative and less than convincing. The author would have been better of giving us more details on well -established quantum phenomena and its applications in (opto-) photo-electronic technology. He gives us a few words on lasers and holograms, but the amazing world of semiconductors and the related field of photonic devices such as LEDs which are now so commonplace, is barely touched. He tantalizes us with the implications of entangled photons, and what that might mean for Star Trek-like teleporting, but the exciting breakthroughs that are happening in the world of quantum computing are not even hinted at. While it is great to see more books targeting that growing audience which wants to learn more about science, books such as this one doesn't venture further than a typical Readers Digest article or Discovery Channel program. To his credit, Brain Clegg gives Richard Feynman, one of the greatest scientists and communicators of the 20th Century is rightfully given due prominence in this book. Readers would be better off reading Feynman's very accessible "QED:The Strange Theory of Light and matter". It's interesting to note that when this book was originally published last year (2001) in the UK it had the simpler title "Light Years". For the North American market we have got "Light Years and Time Travel". Crossing the Atlantic certainly involves some time travel, but you can be sure this book will never make it as an instruction manual for aspiring Captain James T. Kirks.
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An inspiring and creative review of light
Rating (5)
Date: 2001-10-09
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Brian's creative style has given this book a historical and contempory feel. Its enjoyable to read, informative and very though provoking. The best book I have read this year.
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