This text traces the interplay of forces in the history of light from the 17th century to the 1990s. It provides portraits of many of the scientists whose achievements constituted that history, and of major inventors and artistic and literary figures who c.
"This is the brief story, from Leonardo to Oppenheimer, of what we know about light as we enter the last decade of 500 light years of exploration, from the perception of the subject during the Renaissance to the revolution spawned by the laser and optical fibers."--Introduction.