Photonics for a Better World

First cleaning test on a gilded brass panel of the Florence's Baptistery North Door by Lorenzo Ghiberti. This masterpiece is under restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. Lasers are in the news as usual, this time inspiring a list of what Lewis Carroll’s White Queen might have characterized as "six impossible things” to be believed before breakfast. But thanks to optics and photonics, these things are all possible with the help of lasers: (1) Removing layers of pollution from centuries-old decorative plasters as well as marble and bronze statues . Laser techniques development supported by the TEMART and CHARISMA projects at the Istituto di Fisica Applicata ‘Nello Carrara’ – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFAC-CNR) have enabled restoration of such masterpieces as Donatello's Profet Abacuc, the Etruscan masterpiece Arringatore from the Trasimene Lake, wall paintings such as the painting of the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex in Sien...

It’s a great time to be in the field of photonics -- those were the words of Mike Dunne speaking earlier this year to a standing-room-only audience gathered for his plenary talk at the SPIE Photonics Europe meeting in Brussels. Dunne -- who at that time was with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and the HiPER project and has since moved to the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab -- is in a good position to know. He and NIF Director Ed Moses and others are at the forefront of work pursuing fusion as a source of sustainable, clean, affordable energy. Not only is that exciting science, but it’s an extremely worthy goal that will benefit people around the world and the physical environment along with us. My objective for this blog is to celebrate photonics research and development, with the help of guest authors from th e SPIE community and your comments as well. Look on Photonics for a Better World as a vehicle to carry the conversation -...