David J. Moss

A light pulse, like a lump of clay, keeps its shape when passing through an ordinary material. But if you put a special layer just one atom thick in its path, the pulse starts to spread: its spectrum widens.

A conductor raises the baton, and the orchestra produces not just sound but a complex score: each note sounds at its own moment, at its own pitch, with the right volume. Light can also be a score, if you control its spectrum and timing. Previously, this required bulky setups that could not be reconfigured after assembly.