About the Author

Arthur Zajonc is a Fellow of both the Lindisfarne Association and the Fetzer Institute. As a specialist in quantum physics, he has lectured all over the world and is the recipient of a prestigious 1992 Fulbright scholarship.

Reviews

"A small gem of a book, poetic in its style and in its determined conjoining of distant ideas....As crammed with culture as an overcrowded museum storeroom."--James Gleick, The Washington Post
"Brilliant....A beautifully composed meditation."--Kirkus Reviews
"An amazing synthesis and a joy to read--I have not enjoyed a book so much for a long time....An extraordinary work."--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a subject surprisingly clear.
"Catching the Light is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is at once a riveting story, literate and beautifully precise. What more could one ask for in a marriage between science and art?"--Richard Selzer, author of Down from Troy
"A small gem of a book, poetic in its style and in its determined conjoining of distant ideas....As crammed with culture as an overcrowded museum storeroom."--James Gleick, The Washington Post
"Brilliant....A beautifully composed meditation."--Kirkus Reviews
"An amazing synthesis and a joy to read--I have not enjoyed a book so much for a long time....An extraordinary work."--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a subject surprisingly clear.
"Catching the Light is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is at once a riveting story, literate and beautifully precise. What more could one ask for in a marriage between science and art?"--Richard Selzer, author of Down from Troy

Zajonc is an academic physicist who specializes in quantum physics, but his approach to the subject of light is somewhat unconventional from the perspective of many of his colleagues. He provides a capsule history of humans' changing understanding of the nature of light; scientific developments are interspersed with the comments of numerous philosophers, literary figures, and miscellaneous other non-scientists. In summary, he appears to argue that modern science has failed to supply us with a complete understanding of light and that we would be better off with an amalgam that incorporates spiritual and philosophical aspects as well as scientific models. His views are in part unorthodox but deserve a hearing. Recommended chiefly for academic libraries.-- Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor

"A small gem of a book, poetic in its style and in its determined conjoining of distant ideas....As crammed with culture as an overcrowded museum storeroom."--James Gleick, The Washington Post "Brilliant....A beautifully composed meditation."--Kirkus Reviews "An amazing synthesis and a joy to read--I have not enjoyed a book so much for a long time....An extraordinary work."--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a subject surprisingly clear. "Catching the Light is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is at once a riveting story, literate and beautifully precise. What more could one ask for in a marriage between science and art?"--Richard Selzer, author of Down from Troy "A small gem of a book, poetic in its style and in its determined conjoining of distant ideas....As crammed with culture as an overcrowded museum storeroom."--James Gleick, The Washington Post "Brilliant....A beautifully composed meditation."--Kirkus Reviews "An amazing synthesis and a joy to read--I have not enjoyed a book so much for a long time....An extraordinary work."--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a subject surprisingly clear. "Catching the Light is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is at once a riveting story, literate and beautifully precise. What more could one ask for in a marriage between science and art?"--Richard Selzer, author of Down from Troy