| Contents |
History. Ancient optics : magnification without lenses ; The solar weapon of Archimedes ; Claudius Ptolemy's law of refraction ; Antonio de Ulloa's mystery ; The miracle of St. Gascoigne ; Rays of the sun ; Roy G. Biv ; George Christoph Lichtenberg ; Hopkinson's silk handkerchief ; First light : Thomas Melville and the beginnings of spectroscopy ; Mediocrity and illumination ; Even if you can't draw a straight line ; A sea change ; Thomas Pearsall and the ultraviolet ; If at first you don't succeed ; More than a burner ; Apply light pressure ; Sound movies, the World's Fair, and stellar spectroscopy ; Déjà vu ; The magic lantern of Omar Khayyam -- Weird science. The yellow sun paradox ; Once in a blue moon ; Chromatic dispersions ; The eye in the spiral ; Retroreflectors ; Yes, I was right! It is obvious! ; Edible lasers ; Pyrotechnic lasers ; Defunct lasers ; The phantom laser ; The case of the oily mirrors : a locked room mystery ; Pinhole glasses ; Undulations -- Pop culture. This is your cat on lasers ; Dord ; Zap! ; Mystic cameras ; Playing with light ; I must find that tractor beam ; The rise and fall and rise of the Starbow ; Diamonds in the dark ; A popular history of the laser ; Pop culture errors in optics ; Pop spectrum ; The telephote. |
