Some incredibly clever manipulation of light

Light – such a peculiar and, at times, elusive beast. Both a wave and a particle – it has befuddled some of the greatest scientific minds in history. Yet as it dances through space-time at the universal speed limit, it carries with it information – information that we have, in various forms, collected and used for centuries.

From chemistry to astronomy, biology to geology – all scientific endeavour has in some way been transformed by spectroscopy. Of course the information gleaned from light need not be a complex spectrograph highlighting subtle chemical differences…a simple image can still have the power to stop you in your tracks.

On Page 8 we feature a picture taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft as it busily probes Saturn and her moons. It is, frankly, staggering. Whilst taking a mosaic of 33 photographs in order to map Saturn’s ring system, Cassini it seems was the victim of an inter-planetary photo-bombing. Peeking out from just below those famous rings can be seen a sight at once familiar and extraordinary. Taken from 898.414 million miles away, the image shows a blue pin point of light – something unmistakably Earth-like since the famous “Pale Blue Dot” image captured by the Voyager 1 probe left observers agog in 1990.

Much like that image, this one is inherently moving. It is virtually impossible to allude to its poignancy without dipping into the vast cliché cache of the awe struck – however appropriate those well-worn phrases may seem.

Yet the information we can glean from observing and manipulating light is not limited to the outer universe. Likewise, we can turn our gaze and that of our formidable instrumentation and technology inwards. And so to an emerging and exciting field – that of biophotonics. The very definition of multi-disciplinary, it relies on expertise in areas as diverse as advanced mathematics, optics and of course clinical diagnostics. Its remit? To use light in order to detect, diagnose and even treat human disease.

In truth this has been happening for decades – endoscopy and x-rays, just two of the most familiar examples – yet to formalise what has up until now been a relatively disparate collection of technologies and research expertise is absolutely the right move. An umbrella term like this can create a real sense of community and, more importantly, foster collaboration for the researchers involved.  In The Bright Light of Biophotonics we learn first-hand why it is that we are at the dawn of a revolution for diagnostics and healthcare – and how it is all down to some incredibly clever manipulation of light.