Light Fantastic
From rainbows to the mechanics of the human eye, light has fascinated scientists for millennia. Today, the latest optical technologies — from lasers to solar cells — harness light to further physics and serve societies’ needs. To focus on these advances the United Nations has designated 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies. It marks anniversaries including one of the first scientific accounts of optics published by the Islamic scholar Ibn al-Haytham in 1015; August Fresnel’s proposal in 1815 that light is a wave; James Clerk Maxwell’s 1865 electromagnetic theory of light; Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity; and in 1965 the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the development of optical fibres for communication. Our special issue explores how scientists are pushing the properties of light to new extremes.
Nature special: Waves from the Big Bang
Comprehensive coverage of the sensational but ill-fated announcement made in 2014 of the discovery of signatures of primordial gravitational waves. Nature (17 March 2014)
Milestone on the photon
A special sponsored supplement in collaboration with Nature Materials and Nature Physics. Nature (04 February 2015)
Nature special on James Clerk Maxwell
Nature explores how Maxwell's insight emerged from grappling with the problems of telegraphy and discuss its legacies, from telecommunications and microelectronics to metamaterials and unification Nature (17 March 2011)
Web Collection: Year of Light
Key papers on light from journals across Nature Publishing Group, collected to celebrate the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies. Nature Publishing Group (12 February 2015)
