On the fourth day of complete darkness, a voice cut through the silence with three words: "Light is medicine."

That moment — experienced during a dark retreat in the summer of 2024 — didn't just inspire a business. It confirmed what a century of rigorous scientific research had already been establishing all along.

Dr. R.P. Oates is a multidisciplinary scientist with two decades of research spanning chemistry, toxicology, and biotechnology. Holding an MS in Organic Chemistry with a focus in photochemistry and a PhD in Toxicology, he has spent his career studying how physical forces in nature impact living systems — including supporting experiments aboard the International Space Station and publishing peer-reviewed research on light's relationship with DNA and human genetics. In 2020, NASA selected him for its Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) program, studying optimal human performance in space environments.

But it was in the dark that everything came into focus.