The finsen light, named for its inventor, Niels Tyberg Finsen, was a powerful light used to cure people of a skin disorder. Niels Finsen was born in 1860 in the Faroe Islands, Danish islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. His parents were of Icelandic origin, so young Niels spent his early schooling in the capital of Iceland. He was a frail and sickly youth. Living so close to the Arctic Circle where the days are short in winter, Niels became aware of the effects of sunlight on his disposition and health. Later Finsen went to Denmark to study for his medical degree at the University of Copenhagen. While at the university he was incorrectly diagnosed as having heart disease, but actually he suffered from Pick's disease, a condition that affects the liver and the lining around the heart. (He later developed ascites, fluid accumulation in the abdominal...