The study of light has been inextricably linked to the advancement of scientific thought for more than 2000 years. From Euclid to Newton to Einstein, many of the great treatises of science have been directed toward unraveling light's mysteries. Seventeenth-century astronomers studied lenses, turned them toward the sky and removed man from the center of his universe. Measurements of light inspired the invention of quantum mechanics, which enabled the development of the transistor, the laser and our telecommunications age... Meet the authors Carolyn A. MacDonald is a professor of physics and associate director of the Center for X-Ray Optics at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Sushil D. Padiyar obtained his PhD in physics in July from the university.