Science has advanced more in the last few decades than all of previous human history but that pales in comparison to what lies ahead. Light is leading the next revolution.
Energies of Light meets up with some extraordinary visionaries who are taming light’s photons.
Dr. Paul MacCready, named ‘engineer of the 20th century’ chases perpetual flight with “Helios” -- a 247-foot solar-powered wing that’s flown where only rockets dare. He knows that fossil fuels are running out and that sunlight is the clean energy of the future.
Galileo, an earlier mechanically minded visionary was equally fascinated with light. He even tried to measure its velocity but light’s speed eluded him.
The true nature of light is still unfolding and light is a deceptively short word for a wide range of energy.
Dr. Jaymie Matthews, a Canadian astrophysicist with attitude introduces the schizophrenic nature of light -- particle and wave.
We move on to manipulating pixels of light to create the illusion of reality. A pioneer of Hollywood visual effects, Richard Edlund, ASC winner of numerous Oscars discusses making the imagined -- real.
Light’s duality is allowing University of Toronto’s Dr. Sajeev John to mould the flow of light. By creating a microscopic blackout, this silicon dreamer could hold the trillion-dollar key to communication at the speed of light. And you thought life was fast now…
The Northern Lights are nature’s exquisite example of manipulating or bending normally straight-travelling light particles into light beams. A Prairie synchrotron does basically the same thing to reveal another universe right here on Earth -- at the extreme edges of measurement. Dr. Bill Thomlinson discusses how light is opening the door on nature’s secrets and helping us mimic her success.
For the last thirty years, Dr. Jill Tarter has been trying to make contact with other intelligences using the light of radio energy. But it’s getting more and more difficult for ET to phone Earth. To a radio astronomer listening to a certain frequency -- a cell phone on the moon would be the second loudest signal in the universe. The electromagnetic spectrum is now a commodity – an incredibly valuable one increasingly jammed with our technology.
Traveling the universe on the pure energy of light –that’s Dr. Louis Friedman’s lifetime dream. He’s designing giant solar sails so thin you could wrap a sandwich with them. Some time in the near future, these gossamer wings will tack across our galaxy and beyond.
From ancient times to the present, nothing has so captivated or so perplexed as elusive light. Light in some wave, shape or form guarantees our very existence.
Energies of Light offers a glint of light’s potential.
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