Light science vs LED

The New old story that Inspires Generations of Scientists

Light science comes from deep fascination with natural light that led minds like Newton or Einstein to  new discoveries.

But would they be inspired by an artifical light source like the bright LED today? You bet.

The rediscovery of the magic of light

The unchallanged grandaddies of progressive science on light were - in historical order - Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

They were fascinated and very much inspired by natural light. And it was the kind of re-discovery of light by them, but on our behalf - that brought much needed new insights to science. And in turn, light science was promptly taken to uncharted territories where yet new and exciting discoveries took place.

The key it seems was to try and unconver fundamentally new properties of light - and what you and I can do with that.

But how about that now, has that quest stopped? And if not where LED light might lead us in all this. This is a very good question, and one that is not easily answered.

To attempt just that, first we need to look at how and why the two past giants had come to see light in their own spectacularly succesful way.

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The light Science of Sir Isaac Newton

True, it was Galileo Galieli who first constructed a working telescope ever. And let's not forget, it was him, who started thinking about both relative and absolute speed which proved so important a base for Einstein later.

Isaac Newton came some 200 years after Galilei. So in terms of scienctific discoveries he had more than two centuries of additional science experiments and discoveries to stand firmly on the shoulders of Galilei.

But since Galilei's era history had changed quite a bit by the time Newton contemplated the mysteries of light. His time was marked by an overarchingly analytical and self-critical intellectual movement called Enlightment.

And what fascinated him most was how to separate and analyse natural light - not at how fast or how far it moves. It was colour - that basic ingredient of light - that appeared so exciting for him.

So Newton led down the rule of refraction and how and why we can split light into the colors of the rainbow with a simple prism. Later, he constructed Principia, which was about the nature of forces.

But the Royal Society of Scientists elected him as the Member of the Academia for his work published in the field of discovering fundamental new properties of light.

And again, we arrive at a core fascination with light on behalf of an entire community of scientists ... trying to shape it to a kind of collective image that is responsive to the 'time a changing' perhaps ...

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The light Science of Albert Einstein

Newton, then, had given a most potent spark to light a torch for the next great mind in science - Einstein. After a while it was quite clear: - It was up to him where to run with that legacy and where to shine that light - examine color or speed.

Or force perhaps.

But for some reason he decided not to just run. Instead, he wanted to take it for the fastest spin possible.

Curious as to why? This much we know for certain ...

Faraday already stated that light can be none other then electromagnetic wave responsive to invisible magnetic trajectories. And Maxwell proved that the speed of those waves indeed equals to the speed of light.

But tiimes had changed even since then.

We were in the shadows and the throws of bloody wars the likes of which human kind didn't see before. The need for military might meant looking for the fastest speed attainable. Speed and force would've had to be synonymous in more ways then one. And so scienctist were quite fascinated by the limits of speed.

History then had its run what we now call Industrialism - it was more speed there what meant more success. Faster and better were the catch cries of the day. Little surprise then, that it was speed what was the center of fascination for Einstein. Of course his aim was to be as fast as light, perhaps even faster.

Ultimately, it was his insights into the speed of light and it's limits that gave us than new gem in science - relativity.

A yet new light science was born.

Einstein imagined that light travelling on a really fast train should actually travel much faster. (That is, when you emit light forward on the moving train.) But when you measure it that in fact is NOT the case...

------------As an aside,
you could go ahead and try it all you like, but you would need very fine instruments. The likes of which, incidentally were not available to Newton, even if he tried. Bit like you would do now if you had to use home made instruments. On balance, today one could just take an average prism, split light into its spectrums and conjecture about refractive properties. That would be so much easier. Sort of ;-) Because we can not unthink what Newton achieved.
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... So, Einstein must have thought, there should be but ONE way when that increase of speed simply cannot happen. It is when the speed of light is the fastest speed possible. But then how is it that you have something so small, and can't make it go faster? Well, there is a way Einstein said and he followed up thusly: light simply can't have a mass.

As a result he confirmed that light indeed CAN be 'just' a wave -- entirely without a mass.

But what he is more known for is addressing the historical need of speed in light science in the famous statement that goes: "nothing can travel faster than light". Now, when you put this into a formula and add some modifications - you get those elegant equations of general relativity. (In my youth we actually derived some of those in science class - they are elegant and fascinating. And as far as I can recall - I most enjoyed doing it.)

Ok, we all know that Einstein got the Nobel. But it is so much less known that he didn't get the prize for his earth-shattering and ground-breaking theory of relativity. Oh no. He - and this might well show the fascination of all scientists with light again - got the Nobel for his work about "fotons" the newly christened corpuscula of light. Yes, the one that does not have mass. At least not in normal circumstances.

Something that you see all the time and yet cannot have a mass otherwise you won't see it at all?

Talk about magic and miracles ... (When you think about light, philosophy and science coalesces so very nicely.)

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Newton, Einstein and LED light

I read a thread somewhere discussing who out of Newton and Einstein contributed more to science and - I take it - to light science. And someone made a fair comment about Newton being a truly great scientist. But when some say he was even greater then Einstein - that's when you start thinking: - Wait a minute, just how could that be?

He was born BEFORE Einstein.

And that is how you and I see him today - there is simply no other way. We see Newton through the looking glass that Enstein gave us. (And - incidentally - the looking glass as telescope was first discovered by Galileo.) So I think it is fair to say that for us today none of those true scientific giants would exist without the other.

Those luminaries - like all before them, I guess - searched for new directions which they firmly anchored in their own time.

Ok, but today, it is neither Enlightment on that historic grand scale, nor it is about Industrialism any more. -- We live in times what you might call the Information Age. So what better, more profound direction would exists today for the inquiring scientific mind - and hence for light science - than the challenge of processing information with the speed of light.

Perhaps even faster?

Now a LED is actually a crystal that can emit narrow spectrum light. If that light is coherent we call that a LASER. And if the light is incoherent we simply call it, well ... LED light. And by the way that is what we usually use them for around the house.

But here is another thing: - A LED is in fact a light emitting semiconductor -- or electroluminescent chip. In theory, it can and therefore it is very likely WILL process information too! Wow, how's that for exciting?

Today we need a controller with a LED that kind of pre-processes information to tell it what to do - chase, strobe or change colors. But that's because our processors process information in a form of electrical pulses in tiny semiconductor chips that do NOT emit light.

And it would be pretty much meaningless if it did.

Yet, electrical pulses also generate electromagnetic waves, which - thanks in no small part to the light science of Einstein - we now know extends in space in the form of foton particles. And here is a thing: - Currently very promising research IS under way to cut out the 'middle man' that at the moment is the golden film on the the tiny chip waffles.

The new aim is to process information directly with light.

That's the concept of the so called fotonic processor - a thing that could incidentally shape the information light science for succesive generations to come. In it, LEDs emitting coherent laser will very likely play an enourmously important part.

And let's not forget the modulated IR LED light that already operates and controls many of your remote devices.

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The holistic chicken-and-egg Conundrum in Discoveries

So you can see the light science follows a kind of holistic path where things can become connected in unusual ways. And indeed, LEDs are already making the picture even more exciting.

The way I see it is that scientific discoveries are kinda chicken and egg.

Both Newton and Einstein claimed that they had eclipsed everything that came before them. Just like the humble LED light will most incandescents one day. So just imagine: - What would Newton and Einstein think of LED if they lived in our time -- the Information age?

How about LED-lightenment?

Light was alway the symbol of progress, most recently in the form of the humble light bulbs.

Would they think it was time to make LED light the NEW symbol of progress it deserves do you think ... ?
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Related Articles, Resources, Books:
About the strange world of diodes that emit light -- the EL chips.

Find more imaginative thoughts on the Inspiration Story Board

 

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