boon 1. n. 1. A benefit bestowed, especially one bestowed in response to a request. 2. A timely blessing or benefit: A brisk breeze is a boon to sailors. [Middle English.
Quantum leaps are the sole cause of the emission of electromagnetic radiation, including light, which occurs in the form of quantized units called photons. Ironically, when laymen use the term colloquially, they use it to describe large jumps in progress, when in reality a quantum leap is a very small change of state.
The next big leap forward was the result of theoretical work by James Clerk Maxwell, the great Scottish physicist. He published On a Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field in 1865, and in 1873 A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, which became what are known Maxwell's Equations.