To truly begin, one first had to grasp the very essence of light. The questions surrounding it were vast and profound. What is light? What are its properties? How does it interact with the material world? Each question seemed to lead to another, forming an endless chain of curiosity.
But for Noah, only one aspect truly mattered: the part that connected directly to his bioluminescence ability.
Still, before diving into that, he needed to build a foundation. At its core, light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, energy that moves through space in the form of oscillating electric and magnetic fields, dancing together in perfect synchronization.
The electric field rises and falls, while the magnetic field moves side to side. They travel together, always crossing each other at perfect right angles, like a continuous, moving X that never breaks formation.
These two fields sustain one another in a flawless cycle: as the electric field changes, it creates a magnetic field; and as the magnetic field shifts, it gives rise to a new electric field.
This self-sustaining dance allows light to travel freely, even through the emptiness of space, without needing air, water, or any medium at all.
In simpler terms, light is an endless chain of changing electric and magnetic fields, each one giving birth to the other as they move forward through the universe.
Essentially, light, as an electromagnetic wave, exists across a wide range of spectrums, each defined by its wavelength and energy. Depending on the source of radiation, it can manifest as microwaves, radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, or gamma rays—forms of light that remain invisible to the ordinary human eye.
The portion that humans can see lies within what is known as the visible spectrum, encompassing wavelengths roughly between 400 and 700 nanometers.
Within this narrow band, differences in wavelength determine the colors we perceive: shorter wavelengths appear as violet and blue, while longer ones shift toward orange and red.
In essence, what we call "light" is merely a small window into a vast, unseen ocean of electromagnetic energy.
But light doesn't just behave like a wave; it also acts as a stream of tiny particles called photons. Each photon is a small packet, or quantum, of electromagnetic energy.
The energy of a photon depends on its frequency: the higher the frequency (and the shorter the wavelength), the greater the energy it carries. In other words, violet light photons possess more energy than red light photons, even though both belong to the same visible spectrum.
However, the aspect Noah was most interested in was light's interaction with matter, specifically, absorption.
To be more precise, when light strikes a material, its photons can transfer their energy to the material's electrons. The effect of this interaction depends on two main factors: the energy carried by the photons and the internal structure of the material itself.
When an electron absorbs a low- or medium-energy photon, such as those from infrared or visible light, it gains enough energy to move to a higher, excited state.
Then, as the electron returns to its original state, it releases the absorbed energy, often as heat or as random motion among nearby atoms and molecules. In essence, the absorbed light is transformed into thermal energy.
A simple example of this can be seen in how black surfaces heat up under sunlight; they absorb far more light than they reflect, converting most of that incoming energy into warmth.
This very transformation—the conversion of light into heat—was what Noah hoped to replicate through his bioluminescence. If he could control how his body emitted light energy, then the ability's potential was more frightening than he originally gave it credit for.
After all, the description of the ability only stated one thing: to generate and emit visible light from the body. Nowhere did it specify the wavelength or frequency of that light.
After a long moment of thought, Noah opened his eyes, focus returning sharp and steady. With every sensor primed and active, the examination could begin.
For the first test, he decided to start simple. He raised his palms and reached for the familiar mental switch that triggered the ability. A soft glow blossomed instantly, spreading across the room as light poured from his hands.
He didn't pause to admire it, neither did he simply stabilize the output. Instead, he pressed forward, pushing the ability harder, testing how far it could go before reaching its limit.
The yellow glow flared brighter, flooding the room in a brilliance intense enough to blind anyone without protection. But Noah had learned from his mistake that morning. This time, he slipped on a pair of polarized glasses, allowing him to observe the phenomenon directly without strain.
Within seconds, the radiance grew even stronger, the air around his palms shimmering faintly from the heat. Just as doubt began to creep into his mind, the hue shifted, yellow giving way to a vivid green glow that pulsed steadily from his hands.
But before he could celebrate, a gnawing hunger tore through his senses, sharp and overwhelming, as if his very body were being drained from within. Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the bottle of nutrient solution and downed it in heavy gulps. To his surprise, the starving sensation faded almost instantly, ebbing away with each swallow.
"Fast absorption and conversion rate," Noah muttered, mentally noting the observation.
His attention snapped back to the glow in his palms. The green light was still intensifying, accompanied by a growing warmth that edged toward pain. Gritting his teeth, Noah focused harder, channeling every ounce of energy he could muster into pushing the light's intensity even further.
Several seconds passed with little change. Unwilling to yield, Noah grabbed another bottle of nutrient solution and drank, then another, and another, forcing his body to keep up with the energy demand. The heat in his palms kept rising, a warning he tried to ignore, though it soon made him reconsider his approach.
Then, suddenly, just as he expected, the green light flickered and shifted, deepening into a sharp, vivid blue.
"So it's just as I thought," Noah murmured, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. But the satisfaction was short-lived. The warmth in his palms surged into a searing burn, pain spiking as the temperature climbed past what his skin could safely endure.
The air itself seemed to warp faintly around his hands, a sign that his power had crossed into reaction-damaging heat.
Having reached his limit, Noah immediately deactivated the ability. The blue glow dimmed, fading back through green and yellow before vanishing completely. He exhaled, the sound low and heavy, exhaustion settling deep in his muscles.
Without a moment's pause, he grabbed the last bottle of nutrient solution and downed it in one go. The hollow ache in his stomach eased almost instantly, replaced by a faint warmth spreading through his chest.
He took a five-minute break, letting his body recover from the rapid drain and equally swift replenishment. His breathing evened out, his pulse steadied, and soon enough, he was ready again. This time, the test would be to know his area of emission.
It was already confirmed that he could emit light from his palm, but this time Noah wanted to know how far that ability extended, which parts of his body could produce light, and how precisely he could control it.
The answer came within seconds. Every part of him could emit light, his skin, his hair, even his eyes. He could project it from a single fingertip or radiate it from his entire body at once. But the latter would come at a steep cost, his energy would be drained faster than he could replenish it.
Still, that wasn't the real purpose of this test. What Noah truly wanted to know was whether his eyes could function as a natural LASER, an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
To understand that possibility, the concept itself needed to be broken down.
At its core, a laser is a system that excites atoms or molecules to a higher energy state. These excited particles are then forced to release photons, light particles, of identical energy, phase, and direction.
Through a carefully structured process known as stimulated emission, this light is amplified, synchronized, and refined into one of the most precise forms of energy.
To put it simply, when an atom absorbs a photon, one of its electrons jumps from a lower energy level to a higher one. When that excited electron eventually falls back down to its original level, it releases energy, usually in the form of another photon.
This release can happen in two main ways: spontaneous emission or stimulated emission.
In spontaneous emission, the excited electron returns to a lower energy state on its own, emitting a photon in a completely random direction and phase. This is the kind of light produced by ordinary sources like light bulbs, stars, or fire.
In stimulated emission, however, an incoming photon with precisely the right energy interacts with an already excited atom. This interaction forces the electron to drop back to its lower energy level immediately. When that happens, the atom emits a second photon that is identical to the first—same energy, same phase, same direction.
This is the key to light amplification: one photon becomes two perfectly synchronized photons. Those two can then stimulate more emissions, creating a cascading chain reaction that produces a powerful, coherent beam of light, the foundation of the laser.