Research is like any other human endeavor, as subject to trends and fads as the fashion industry. Everyone wants to jump on the latest new thing. In the world of optics, that means photonics. I’ll explain photonics in a second, because it’s cool and everyone should be able to talk knowledgeably about photonics to their older relatives.

Photonics involves carefully structuring materials to bend light to the experimenter’s will. But photons don’t always cooperate. They’re a bit like ants—while one photon doesn’t do much, several photons carry off all your breadcrumbs and threaten the honey, and the entire photon colony will repossess your fridge, contents included. In other words, photonics labs are filled with the burnt remains of experiments because careless researchers cranked up the laser power.