On May 16, the International Day of Light, established by UNESCO in November 2017, is celebrated. It focuses on the role of light in science, culture and the arts, education and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications and energy.
The appearance of the holiday was preceded by the idea of holding the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015), implemented at the initiative of UNESCO in 2015. The success of the action prompted a number of representatives of this organization to consider a resolution to establish an annually celebrated holiday dedicated to the role of light in human life. That year, 147 countries held more than 13 thousand events dedicated to the role of light in science, culture, art, medicine, as well as everyday human life.
Light plays a central role in human activity. At the most fundamental level, through photosynthesis, light is the origin of life itself. The study of light has led to promising alternative energy sources, substantial medical advances in disease diagnosis and treatment technologies, the creation of high-speed Internet, and many other discoveries that have revolutionized society and shaped our understanding of the universe. These technologies have been developed over centuries of fundamental research into the properties of light —, starting with Ibn al-Haytham's book «Kitab al-Manazir» («Book of Optics»), published in 1015, and including Einstein's work in the early 20th century that changed our perception of time and light.
The new holiday is designed to promote the role of light and light technologies in modern science, stimulate the development of education, sciences based on light technologies, and also introduce the results of such scientific activities into the lives of citizens around the world.
From the point of view of the organizers of the holiday, light and technologies based on it should contribute to the implementation of plans for the sustainable development of humanity adopted by the UN, through improving the quality of life of people.
The date chosen for the celebration was May 16, on which in 1960, for the first time in the world, a successful laser demonstration was carried out, carried out by physicist and engineer T. Maiman. It was physical societies, research institutes and educational institutions from different countries, continents and parts of the world that formed a coordinating council dealing with the organization and holding of events within the framework of the International Day of Light, as well as the consideration and resolution of issues related to the assigned tasks.
Among the goals pursued during the Day's events are: increasing awareness and understanding of how light and light technologies affect our daily lives, as well as the world around us. After all, there is also a problem associated with the fact that light in the dark plays a detrimental and sometimes even disastrous role in the lives of individual representatives of the fauna (the problem of preserving the dark sky). In addition, an important task of event coordinators is to resolve the issue of energy efficiency by creating and introducing new technologies in the field of light.
The availability of light technologies in the fields of industry and agriculture, healthcare, culture and design should contribute to improving the quality of life, preserving and enhancing cultural heritage.
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