Alexander graham bell was certain his greatest invention would change the world. He was almost right. The telephone was indeed revolutionary, letting people talk to each other across great distances as if they were in the same room. Unfortunately, Bell thought his greatest invention was not the telephone, but the photophone. That was a complete flop. Perhaps it was just ahead of its time. Because the basic idea behind it - using pulses of light to bounce information through free space - is once again set to change the way we communicate. Radio waves have been the medium of choice for sending signals wirelessly for the best part of a century. But we're rapidly reaching a crunch in how much data we can send. That, with advances in LEDs and lasers, mean light is starting to beat radio hands down, at least for some applications.
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机译：亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔（Alexander Graham Bell）确信他最伟大的发明将改变世界。他几乎是正确的。电话确实是革命性的，使人们可以像在同一个房间一样远距离交谈。不幸的是，贝尔认为他最大的发明不是电话，而是光电电话。那是一次彻底的失败。也许这只是时代的提前。因为其背后的基本思想-使用光脉冲通过自由空间反射信息-再次被设置为改变我们的交流方式。无线电波已成为二十世纪上半叶无线发送信号的首选媒介。但是我们正在迅速发送可发送多少数据的紧要关头。这就是说，随着LED和激光的发展，至少在某些应用中，光开始削弱无线电的作用。
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