Light Years: The Extraordinary Story of Mankind's Fascination with Light - Softcover

Clegg, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848318146 ISBN 13: 9781848318144

Publisher: Icon Books, 2015

Synopsis

Brian Clegg recounts how ancient civilizations understood light spiritually, and looks at the first scientific grapplings with light.

Clegg looks at the contribution of artists to our understanding of light, examines the great revolutionaries of light theory including Galileo and Albert Einstein, and explains the mind-bending advances of quantum physics.

About this title

About the Author:

Science writer Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge University and specialises in making the strangest aspects of the universe, from infinity to time travel and quantum theory, accessible to the general reader. He is editor of www.popularscience.co.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His previous books include Inflight Science, The Universe Inside You, Dice World, The Quantum Age and Introducing Infinity: A Graphic Guide.

Review:

'A fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It brings together all aspects of light in an unusual and compelling way.' * Sir Patrick Moore CBE * 'A fascinating book which illuminates and entertains.' * Sir Clive Sinclair * 'Light's properties often seem mysterious to the point of being unfathomable. Yet in this extraordinary book Brian Clegg manages to explain them through the lives of those so fixated with light that they have shaped our perception of it... Clegg's accessible writing style manages to encapsulate the lives of light's disciples with humorous and interesting anecdotes... Clegg also provides real scientific insight into how light behaves. He explains complex theories through lucid metaphors, without resorting to the elaborate diagrams so beloved of some popular science writers...Clegg indulges in future gazing, too, the results of which are quite awesome.' * New Scientist * 'This immensely likeable work of pop science traces "man's enduring fascination with light", from Aristotle's plans for a death ray (burning enemy ships with a giant array of mirrors) through to a recent experiment that seems to have sent Mozart's 40th Symphony faster than light, and thus back through time. Clegg is very good at explaining the bizarre properties of light.' * Steven Poole, Guardian *

About this edition

• Publisher: Icon Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1848318146
• ISBN 13: 9781848318144
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288