ABSTRACT
What is light? The question has vexed some of the greatest minds
since the dawn of humanity. For most of that history and prehistory,
light seemed intangible; a topic of metaphysical debate.
It was only very recently, in the history of academia, that the
physical nature of light began to be uncovered. Thanks to the
discoveries of Thomas Young, James Clerk Maxwell, and the many
physicists and mathematicians on whose intellectual foundations
they built, we now know it to be a very tangible phenomenon. In fact,
understanding and control of the physical principles that govern it
have, in the last few decades, developed to the point that light can be
used as a tool with which to exert forces on solid and liquid matter.
