The rise of light

This article is inspired by the celebration of the year light in 2015 and regards the long lasting relationship between man and light. Man started using light in prehistoric times and the oldest traces of scientific investigations on light date back to ancient China and Greece. While the long march of science led to the modern theories of light Maxwell, Einstien and quantum electrodynamics, light technologies have developed providing more and more differentiated applications. Since long ago we have used various forms of artificial light that have profoundly impacted in our working systems and life. More recently we have learned to use the light in a large family of technologies, include photography, cinema and television, and also the technological domain of optoelectronics, that regards the management, processing and transmission of information, which so deeply characterize our society.