What was the first light of the cosmos? What are mirages? What would our daily life be like without technologies such as lasers, fibre optics or solar panels? These are just some of the questions answered by the new audio guides in the exhibition 'A Universe of Light', produced by the Institute of Optics (CSIC) as part of the International Year of Light 2015.

The exhibition, produced with the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), takes a look at the main characteristics and properties of light, as well as its technological applications. Its content, prepared by research staff from the Institute of Optics (IO) of the CSIC, deals with the dual nature of light - which behaves as a wave and as a particle -, the exciting human visual system or phenomena such as the polar aurora or rainbows. Its panels also include tools such as microscopes and telescopes, new lighting devices or the use of light in art, medicine or the production of renewable energy.

The audio guides are made up of 21 audio files, one for each exhibition panel, which allow the contents of the exhibition to be expanded and updated. These audio files can be listened to using the playback devices that travel with the exhibition and can be downloaded from the CSIC website together with the exhibition and the educational units and experiment sheets that complement it. They have been prepared by members of the Deputy Vice-presidency of Scientific Culture (VACC) of the CSIC and the IO within the framework of Science City, a project of dissemination in the local environment promoted by the CSIC to which 50 Spanish localities belong.

Link to CSIC