The Story of Light

by Ben Bova

The story of light affects us every day of our lives...

In highly visual, entertaining and easy-to-understand language, famed science writer Ben Bova explains the many ways light affects our minds, bodies and universe.
--Why do people kiss with their eyes closed?
--What exactly is quantum physics?
--Why is it difficult to swat a mosquito?
--Is the universe expanding or contracting?
--How do lasers work?
--What do we "see" when we dream?

In this all-encompassing work, one of the most noted science fiction as well as nonfiction writers of our time explores the subject of light and shows how it has shaped every aspect of our existence.

From the creation of life to the exploration of the heavens and the stars, from the origins of the earth to the possibility of life on distant planets, Ben Bova unveils the beauty and science behind this phenomenon. Dr. Bova masterfully explains how light affects us every day of our lives, from our religions to our sex drives, as well as how we use light in art, science, industry, entertainment, cosmetics, jewelry and much more.

"The enlightenment of discoveries and the brilliance of Ben Bova combine to enable our minds to glimpse the majesty of the infinite worlds of light in the universe."
--Buzz Aldrin

"Superbly written--a banquet of topics served by a master literary chef!"
--Bill Pogue, Skylab astronaut

"The Story of Light is a light-hearted, enlightened romp through many facets of human experience, reflected and refracted through Bova's bright, polychromatic mind."
--David Grinspoon, Principal Scientist, Southwest Research Institute and author of Venus Revealed

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Physics

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author spends too much time in high minded ramblings about himself and doggedly hanging on to and promoting Darwinism. If you can make it past those sections, the rest of the book is a good history lesson on the evolution of the theories about light with interesting abstract thoughts and tid-bits on the subject borrowed from a plethora of sources.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bova, Ben. The Story of Light (2001)
Entertaining, fact-filled, and far-ranging account

Bova is a master at writing readable prose for a general readership. He's been at it for fifty years or more, and is among the best at making science fascinating. One is reminded of the work of the late, great, and sorely missed Isaac Asimov. Like Asimov, Bova is the author of over a hundred books, both fiction and nonfiction, and is especially celebrated for his innovative science fiction. I have only one small criticism. In his touting of the Strategic Defense Initiative from the Reagan administration and how lasers can be used to knock down ballistic missiles, he fails to mention how easily they can be fooled by dummy targets while failing to point out how ineffectual lasers are against "suitcase" nuclear bombs. To his credit Bova admits his bias on page 282, a bias that came about because he was employed as a marketing manager for the Avco Everett Research Laboratory in Massachusetts, a company that was in the business of making high-powered lasers.

The chapters on the development of photography from the pinhole camera obscura to lasers, holography and fiber optics are among the most interesting. The fourth part of the book, "Book IV: To Seek," beginning on page 323 is a readable, concise update on how electromagnetic radiation is helping us to explore the universe. In other words, Bova gets to talk about subjects he loves dearly, cosmology, physics and astronomy. This is not a work for scientists; instead there is a clear emphasis on satisfying the needs of the general reader by providing a wealth of information about light and just about anything to do with light, including painting, perception, how the eye works, photography, photosynthesis--indeed, even the origin of life--the search for extraterrestrial life, extrasolar planets, radiation, LASIK surgery, relativity, quantum mechanics, gemstones and their uses, time travel, the ozone layer, nuclear fission and fusion...etc. His enthusiasm for solar power and especially for Solar-Powered Satellites, "huge satellites that can generate gigawatts of solar electricity and send it to Earth through microwave beams" (p. 310) is infectious and welcome.

There is a modest bibliography and a short glossary and an index. One is occasionally amused at Bova's asides and quaint cultural references (e.g., Jimmy Durante!). He keeps a light-hearted tone and mixes in bits of toastmaster humor. I'm thinking of the "Hungarian recipe" for an omelette: "First, steal some eggs..." (p. 291) or his description of the active element fluorine in contrast to the relatively inert xenon, as "a used-car salesman who is running for mayor." (p. 271)

The Story of Light can be profitably read by teenagers as well as by lay seniors looking to keep up with recent developments set in a clear historical context.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up after learning and being confused by Stephen Hawking's book that says that light can be both a particle and a wave. I was confused and hoped this book could help. This book takes many chapters to tell you that light is neither of those but is "electromagnetic energy". Thanks. That's much clearer. I still learned lots, but don't feel like I walked away with a clear answer or explanation of my question.

[Cara W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very readable book about multiple aspects of light - how light influenced the formation of life on earth, how humans see light and color. The physics of light and stars is also discussed. Ben Bova puts in some editorial comments - most light hearted and amusing. I would recommend it highly to anyone. Written for the general reader and of interest to the scientist - with no math!!

[Gendou · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-curated collection of moments in the history of science all having to do with light.

It covers theory e.g. the electromagnetic spectrum, and technology e.g. the invention of limelight.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summer reading. Interesting, edifying, but you can still fall asleep in the hammock.

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

And God said, “Let there be light,” while on his deathbed, Johann Wolfgang Goethe cried out, “Mehr Licht!” (“More light!”) Light is important. Plants need it to live, and humans need it to thrive, both physically and spiritually. The speed at which it travels (roughly 300 km per second) functions as a limit on human movement through space (so far as we know.) Above and beyond all that, light is pretty, its use on the stage and in chiaroscuro in painting subtly altering the emotions and focus of the viewer.
The Story of Light by Ben Bova is a popular scientific approach to the concept of light. It’s all here, from cutting edge work with lasers to the ancient Egyptian technique of using mirrors to semaphore over vast distances. Bova, having a thing for the visual arts, spends more time on them than your average reader might prefer, but if your sensibilities match up with his, you won’t mind how deep into the weeds he gets.
Lots of what was considered novel when the book was written is now taken as a given—you heard about this newfangled thingamajig called the interwebs? Ibid, Lasix surgery. But you can hardly fault Bova for that, as the man didn’t have access to a time machine (so far as we know) and sadly he is no longer with us, which means this updated version I have with me will be the last improvement on the original. Still, there is a little bit too much recapitulation of information so basic that even this layman found it tiresome. I know how color mixing works, and I know the difference between color addition and subtraction. I also know how rainbows work; yes they’re pretty, and their prismatic displays are a nice natural version of what can be accomplished with high-powered astronomical tools.
But I wish more time and space had been given to the theoretical, to the stuff at the very frontier of science.
Bova is a master at describing the improbable-but-possible, when the whim strikes him, as it did in his book on immortality, called...wait for it...Immortality. Whether or not lengthening our telomeres will allow more faithful cell transcription, allowing us to live forever, I do not know. But Bova at least explained why it was possible, which I found endlessly fascinating. Here, as previously mentioned, there is much less emphasis on the possible, more on the actual. If that actual consisted of stuff I didn’t already know about, I might not be complaining. But since I already did, I am.
I guess I’m saying I wish there had been more material bridging the scientific fact with science fiction. That photonic computers may prove that superluminary travel is possible—by information at least—shows this was a wasted opportunity. Think about it: there are messages that travel so fast that the answer could potentially arrive before the message is even sent, blowing a hole in linearity and temporality entirely. In such a world (which may be the world you and I are inhabiting already) what isn’t possible? It makes the teleporters on Star Trek look pretty tiddlywinks by comparison.
Regardless, RIP to a brilliant man, one of the titans of hard science whose skills as a teacher were so well-honed that he could take the biggest, baddest concepts in the universe and shrink them down so even I could understand them. Chalk this one-off as a miss, though. With photographic plates and some sketches, drawings, and charts worked into the text.

[H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information was good but I hated the writing style

[Swiftsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only for people into BIOLOGY. Seriously.

[Lynn Ferder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the information about LIGHT. But there is a lot of extras in the book that weren't necessary, such as promoting evolution.