UNESCO - International Day of Light Special

By using LiDAR (scanning with a laser) from a plane, we can make maps of the ground below. This is an important tool for modern archaeology because it can highlight the remains of buildings and burials from thousands of years ago, such as in the New Forest or the Isle of Arran in Scotland. Currently, archaeologists have to look through these maps themselves, which can be a long and time-consuming process. In this talk, I’ll show how we can use artificial intelligence to recognise the marks of long-gone people and discover new sites that were previously unknown.

When we stream data from Alexa, or ask Google a question, data from our phone travels wirelessly through the air, and is transformed to an optical signal. It then flies through a hidden web of tiny glass pipes (optical fibres) to a remote datacentre hundreds of kilometres away and returns with the information... in the blink of an eye! Streams of invisible photons carry billions of thoughts, secrets and photos every day through a hyperhighway of optical fibres criss-crossing the Earth.
Here we will review this amazing light-guiding technology and the way researchers are trying to improve it

Nanotechnology is not a new concept; nature mastered it millions of years ago by structuring materials in ways we can’t see, from iridescent butterfly wings to colourful gem stones. In this talk, I’ll explain how we can adapt Nature’s nanotechnology to enhance our lives. By making tiny holes in a material, we can control light in ways that were previously impossible, as bizarre effects from quantum mechanics (the physics of tiny things) come into play. In particular, I’ll talk about using this to make super-efficient LED lighting and new displays for virtual reality headsets or mobile phones.