LOCALIZATION OF LIGHT has been achieved by an Amsterdam- Florence collaboration (contact Ad Lagendijk, adlag@phys.uva.nl). Consider the movement of light through a diffuse medium such as milk, fog, or sugar. The light waves scatter repeatedly, and the transmission of light decreases as the light gets reflected. In the Amsterdam-Florence experiment something different happens. By using a gallium-arsenide powder with a very high index of refraction but with very low absorption at near infrared (wavelength of 1064 nm), the researchers were, in a sense, able to get the light to stand still. That is, the light waves get into the medium and bounce around in a standing wave pattern, without being absorbed. This is the first example of "Anderson localization" for near-visible light. This medium is not what would be called a "photonic bandgap" material (analogous to a semiconductor for electrons) but more like a "photonic insulator." (Wiersma et al., Nature, 18/25 December 1997; images at Physics News Graphics.)