Light Fantastic
God is light. In all cultures, there’s an intimate association between illumination and divinity, between life and creation.
Light is color. Light is energy. It fuels life and it feeds the spirit. It inspires art, religion, and science. Light holds the secrets of the universe. For thousands of years, humanity has tried to unlock the mysteries of light in its’ search for the nature of God himself.
Light Fantastic explores the phenomenon that surrounds and affects nearly every aspect of our lives but one which we take for granted – light.
Part 1 – Let There Be Light
Greek and Arab scholars, and later Europeans such as Descartes and Newton all tried to understand light to gain a better understanding of God. Episode one shows how much of modern science’s origins came from the desire to penetrate the divine nature of light.
Part 2 – The Light of Reason
The second programme explores the link between the development of practical tools that manipulate light and the emergence of new ideas. For example, Galileo’s observation that the sun did not go around the earth, was made with a telescope that had been invented for Venetian soldiers and traders.
Part 3 – The Stuff of Light
Episode three charts the discovery of the true nature of light and its impact on the modern world. All of today’s technologies – electricity, mobile communications and our ability to illuminate the world 24 hours a day – stem from unravelling the mystery of light.
Part 4 – Light, The Universe and Everything
In the final programme Simon Schaffer finds that as more people were able to manipulate light, the more puzzling and tricky it became. This led to investigations into the strange relationship between light, the eye and the mind, and the development of new technology such as photography and cinema.
Ive just finised episode 2 of this documentary, looking forward to watching the next 2.
As a photographer this documentary is very interesting and full of some information i didnt realise. It also brings up alot of confirmation about the theories around god and the sun that ive seen jump around.
5/5
Not a problem @Kumar Sanghvi. Thanks.
Marvellous documentary.
Watched all the 4 parts……….never looked at light from this view point.
Extremely superb !!
Thanks Vlatko for sharing the extremely nice collection of documentaries.
I find that in the area of science there seems to be error in all theory. Schaffer characteristicly is bashing the Catholic Church here unfairly. While the Church made some errors, read more on the subject before you bash. Lets remember fairly that when our in vestigation tools changed, so did our understanding. However, science can still not define how light, gravity, a rainbow, let alone how the universe came about. For sure we have only the ability to observe and make theory.
one last thing i note is that if this is written by shaffer he also has a bias towards male physicists in the area of light. Women have studied the problems of such things but have largely been ignored. It seems to be the case, because for example, there have been women who were nuclear physicists in the time of all of the latter studies of the atom, women did look at the genes, women did do chemistry…have you ever looked at how medicines came about?
Women were sometimes not allowed to enter such fields too. But those who did had to have been highly gifted.
@ Pamela,
There definitely seems to be a bias, but you mustn’t forget that it’s only since the Post-Victorian era that women have been recognized wholesale for their contribution to science. It’s difficult to come to terms with in our day and age but such was the state of things back then. I did a piece on Florence Nightingale once, and it was extraordinary how she was able to achieve what she did during that time. She and few others were not part of the mainstream, but we all should be glad she worked tirelessly against all the odds.
We are moving in the right direction now thankfully, so we can admire the contribution of both the sexes.
Does anyone know where I can find this on DVD or BluRay? I think this is one of the coolest documentaries I’ve ever seen, but I can’t find it anywhere to buy.
The subject is great, but the way it is presented is simply – annoying. This guy should never be on tv.
I love light <3 and the challenges it brings forth =) I tip my hat to all the great men and women of history who were all important in what we know today . Even the ones who didnt get famous but still count . I wish we could all get along and play nice but i guess im asking for something improbable =*(