Stemming from the root 'photon', photonics is anything dealing with the generation, manipulation, and detection of light. It includes traditional optics, but is much broader, pointing to the fact that there is much more that can be done with light than even 100 years ago. All of us are familiar with optics - cameras, glasses, light bulbs, and telescopes have been in existence since before we were born. Other photonics technology such as optoelectronics and electro-optics are also fast becoming a part of our daily lives. Light is at the forefront of the communications revolution. With modern technological advancement, light can be used to transfer and store information quickly, cleanly, efficiently, and inexpensively. Photonics technology is everywhere - in medical devices, computers, homeland defense, biotechnology, nanotechnology, telecommunications, biotechnology, military weapons, remote sensing, transportation, space exploration, and more. Photonics is both an industry in its own right, and a far-reaching, enabling technology.
Please read the brief story from "Harnessing Light," reproduced with permission from National Academy Press. It illustrates just a few ways that optical technologies impact our daily lives. That impact is rarely noticed because the optical technology in the products we us is, ironically, often invisible and because we adapt so swiftly to modern technology. Today, we pay as little attention to infrared remote controls, light-emitting diodes, and laser printers as to the mirrors that have been with us since antiquity.
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