One of the most interesting parts of the story is that the understanding of what light is, from antiquity to today, with the debate on the nature of wave or particle (actually it is two at the same time).
Another interesting chapter, the one on fiber optics, always evolving.
The explanations are very clear, we understand everything and the subject is really addressed in full with as references to biology. The nearly 1,000 pages of the book that we are truly has something vent his thirst for knowledge on the subject. It takes weeks to read this pad!
Some regrets; the fact that the illustrations and photos are misallocated, there is a chapter on the ozone layer which is difficult to see the place here, and there is too much 'commonplace' and sometimes a banalities little irritating.
If the physical well we know, including its history, perhaps we might be bored but the author shows us some of the latest developments on the subject. The light, its speed, its nature, being the basis for much of modern physics, Trinh Xuan Thuan actually gives an overview of many current problems of physics, such as quantum teleportation or the search for missing matter, sometimes at the cost of a certain distance from the subject.
