Savas Dimopoulus, the particle physicist who created one of the two currently popular theories about the origin of the universe, put it very well when he said:

Why do humans do science? Why do they do art? The things that are least important for our survival are the very things that make us human.

Physics is one way to explain the world. Art is another. Both come together beautifully in Vessel, Todd Bracher's lighting design for Human Scale.

Rather than approaching the pendant design as a minimalist aesthetic exercise, Brooklyn-based Todd Bracher Studio leveraged their expert network to achieve a light management for an omnidirectional 98 CRI LED which would eliminate glare completely. The main goal was to create a light throw that would beautifully render any social exchange or activity around the pendant.

A leading optical physicist was involved to make sure that the photons emitted by the light source would be perfectly controlled in a way that would deliver them away from the eye of those lit by the lamp. This collaboration resulted in a new ray-trace technology which enables Vessel to deliver optically perfect LED light through a quartz crystal light guide. Using a physics phenomenon called TIR, or Total Internal Reflection, Vessel redirects the glare produced by the LED and diffuses it evenly through the light guide toward the intended surface.