The year 2015 is officially designated as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies. In fact, light has long been a motivator for much of our scientific understanding of the world and a key tool–arguably the most important one–for making further discoveries.  

In this talk we will illuminate (!) the properties of light with LOTS of dazzling demos, and will discuss some of its applications in science, technology, commerce, medicine, entertainment, life, etc.