The Scientist Who Changed the Internet Forever but Never Got a Nobel
In an era where the internet connects billions instantaneously—streaming videos, enabling global video calls, and powering commerce across continents—one foundational technology makes it all possible: fiber optics. The high-speed, low-loss transmission of data over vast distances relies on glass fibers that carry light signals with remarkable efficiency. Yet the man widely regarded as the father of this revolutionary field never received the Nobel Prize that many believed he deserved.
Narinder Singh Kapany, born on October 31, 1926, in Moga, a small town in Punjab, India, grew up in a world where scientific “facts” were often accepted without question. As a young student, he was told by a teacher that light travels only in straight lines. For most, this was simply a lesson to memorize. For Kapany, it was a challenge. Refusing to accept the limitation, he dedicated his career to proving that light could be bent and guided—ultimately transforming global communication.
Kapany’s breakthrough came during his doctoral studies at Imperial College London in the early 1950s. In 1954, he demonstrated the practical transmission of images through flexible bundles of optical fibers, harnessing the principle of total internal reflection to trap and guide light along curved paths. He coined the term “fiber optics” in 1956, and his work laid the essential groundwork for using optical fibers to transmit information reliably. This innovation enabled not only medical tools like endoscopes but, crucially, the modern telecommunications infrastructure that underpins today’s internet.
Fiber optic cables now carry approximately 95% of international internet traffic. Without the ability to send massive amounts of data over thousands of kilometers with minimal signal loss—thanks to the foundational principles Kapany established—the high-bandwidth world of broadband, streaming services, cloud computing, and real-time global connectivity would look very different.
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physics recognized achievements in fiber optics, awarding it to Charles Kuen Kao for his pioneering 1966 work on low-loss optical fibers that made long-distance communication commercially viable. Kao’s contributions built directly on earlier ideas, including those from Kapany’s 1950s demonstrations, and were instrumental in turning fiber optics into a practical reality for telecommunications.
Many in the scientific community felt Kapany should have shared the prize. He had long been celebrated as the “father of fiber optics,” featured in Fortune magazine as one of seven “Unsung Heroes of the 20th Century” in 1999, and listed by Time magazine among the top scientists of the century. The Nobel Committee itself acknowledged his pioneering role in related publications, yet his name was absent from the official citation. The award focused on the breakthroughs that enabled widespread implementation, but the oversight left a lingering sense of injustice among those familiar with the field’s history.
Kapany’s life extended far beyond the lab. After moving to the United States, he founded companies to commercialize fiber optic technology and became a prominent advocate for Sikh culture, establishing the Sikh Foundation in 1967 to preserve and promote Sikh heritage globally. He married Satinder Kaur in 1954, and together they raised two children, Raj and Kiran. Kapany remained active in science, education, and philanthropy until his later years.
He completed his memoir, The Man Who Bent Light, before his death on December 4, 2020, in Redwood City, California, at the age of 94. The title perfectly encapsulates his legacy: a scientist who defied conventional wisdom to bend light itself, enabling the digital world we inhabit today.
While the Nobel eluded him, Kapany’s impact is undeniable and omnipresent. Every pulse of light racing through undersea cables, every seamless connection across oceans, carries the echo of his vision. History, if not the Nobel Committee, has remembered the man who helped make the internet what it is.
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