A potted history of man’s understanding of light, this book is both entertaining and educational, taking us on a journey from the beginning of our history as modern man right up to the flights of fancy of today’s scientists.
Light Years is a testament to Brian Clegg’s power of clarity. He offers fantastic explanations of some of the more bizarre aspects of light, eschewing mathematics, relying on clear prose to convey appreciation of both the problem and, if we know the solution, the solution. He’s not above using a diagram or two, but only when strictly necessary.
The usual suspects are all covered here: Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein. The giants. And many esoteric suspects you’ve probably never heard of, but who made today’s world what it is: Muslim scientist Alhazen, Roger Bacon, aka Doctor Mirabilis, lens makers Hans and Zacharias Janssen, Anton van Leeuvenhoek, the father of microbiology, and those associated with the invention of the telescope Hans Lippershey, Leonard and Thomas Digges. The list goes on.
The book starts off with the very latest in research (at least at the time the book was published), and reads like science fiction: Bose Einstein Condensates and slow glass (a term which I’d never heard before), travelling the spectrum (ha ha ha) to faster-than-light communication through quantum tunnelling. OK, many of the concepts Clegg discusses here are still in the realm of science fiction, but the point he is making is that light is still throwing up surprises and our current understanding, while wide-ranging, is by no means comprehensive.
After this quick introduction into the (more-or-less) current state of affairs, Clegg takes us right back to the beginning: the Greek myths, Icarus and Daedalus, the Greek philosophers, Archimedes, Ptolemy, the Bible, “Let there be light”. Light was a much thought about, yet little understood, phenomenon. The power that light holds over us can be seen in our names for the periods that Clegg takes us through: the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment.
Coming to the Enlightenment, Clegg excels in explaining the great scientists and their thought patterns. The ones who really shaped our world and understanding of it: Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Feynman. The ones who have not been superseded (yet). Clegg’s descriptions of Einstein’s thinking, in particular, are very clear and offer an insightful look into how the great man came up with his defining theories. The people, the ideas, the theories. Many ancients thought light emanated from our eye; the truth of our eyes only being receptors was surprisingly a long time in becoming apparent to all. Clegg weaves it all together in a satisfying manner.
For those who wish a modicum of understanding of the electromagnetic wave/particle/it really is a particle/with wave-like features/warticle?/pave? that is light, but don’t want to have to endure three or four years of a university physics degree to get it, you could do a lot worse than this book.
