Giant Fiber Optic Christmas Tree

More than four million lights shine in the giant fiber optic Christmas tree which has been put up at a shopping mall in Hong Kong. It happens to be the world’s largest such tree and also holds the record for the number of lights used. The tree is being used as part of a fund raising campaign for the Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer's disease.

The Christmas tree was switched on by Professor Charles Kao who himself is an Alzheimer’s patient. He set up the charity earlier this year with his wife Gwen Kao. He was the first person who had publically proposed using fiber optics for communication purposes. He is known as the Godfather of Broadband or the Father of Fiver Optics. Professor Charles Kao has worked for ITT in Europe and the US.

He has also been the vice chancellor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1987 to 1996. He has worked extensively on optical fibre technology all through his career. He was given half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.