by Richard J Weiss

Richard J Weiss has been naval officer, scientist, playwright, and tavernkeeper. He has held appointments in physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Materials Research Laboratory, King's College London, Cavendish Laboratories and the University of Surrey. As tavernkeeper he has directed the operation of Blanchard's Tavern, a colonial tavern of the Revolutionary War. His plays have been performed by the BBC London. He lives in Avon upon Stratford, Massachusetts.

From Leonardo to Oppenheimer, from candles to lasers, from cave drawings to cinema, from stonehenge to quantum mechanics, from Genesis to the Big Bang, light has filled our thoughts, our way of life, our aesthetics, our technology, and our means for survival. Richard Weiss leads us along these paths over the past 500 light years. The way is lit by pioneers such as Rembrandt, Einstein, D W Griffith, Newton, and Heisenberg. A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIGHT, AND THOSE THAT LIT THE WAY is a summer's day roller-coaster ride through five centuries of man's achievements in understanding and manipulating light.

• 16th and 17th Centuries
• 18th Century
• 19th Century
• Early 20th Century — Part 1
• Tutorial 1, The Photon and the Electron
• Early 20th Century — Part 2
• Tutorial 2, Photons and Electrons
• Early 20th Century — Part 3
• Tutorial 3, Riding a Photon
• Early 20th Century — Part 4
• Tutorial 4, Illusion and Reality
• Early 20th Century — Part 5
• Latter Half of the 20th Century — Part 1
• Tutorial 5, Photons versus Electrons
• Latter Half of the 20th Century — Part 2