Possibilities And Challenges Of Harnessing Light?

[yashrajkakkad]

I am supposed to shoot up a six-minute speech along with a presentation at a competition nearby. The topic is "Harnessing Light: Possibilities and Challenges"

Therefore, my question is what do you think are the possibilities and challenges of harnessing light? I am supposed to stick to the topic entirely, and that is what makes it difficult. 

I would be glad if some knowledgeable person shares his/her knowledge and views!

Thank you! :-)

[Pmb]

I can't think of how the concept is even meaningful. What would it even mean to "harness light"?

[sanctus]

I guess it might mean something like using the photons momentum to convert it to momentum of a sail or something like that (meaning using somehow the energy carried by light for something)?

Or following this link http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-possibilities-and-challenges-of-harnessing-light it seems just to mean "do stuff with light".

[Pmb]

If that's the case then the answer answers itself it would seem, right?

[layman]

if you could harness light you could make things invisible. you could produce enormous amounts of electricity.  you could dump it into a particle and blow up the solar system. a whole bunch of fun stuff.

[billvon]

if you could harness light you could make things invisible. you could produce enormous amounts of electricity.  you could dump it into a particle and blow up the solar system. a whole bunch of fun stuff.

We can do all that stuff now (well, other than blowing up the solar system) with the light we harness,

[layman]

We can do all that stuff now (well, other than blowing up the solar system) with the light we harness,

 

ok, were we supposed to come up with things not already thought of?

 

we could shoot it at dark matter to accurately determine it's topology?