In conventional sources of ultrashort laser pulses, it is only the temporal variation of the amplitude (dotted line) of the electric-field oscillations and their frequency, determining the duration and color of the light flash, respectively, that can be controlled and reproduced from one laser pulse to the next. The timing of the field oscillations with respect to the pulse peak varies (randomly) from pulse to pulse, preventing the light waveform from being reproduced. Intense light pulses with precisely controlled and reproducible electric field waveform recently became available. They enable us – for the first time – to exert a force on electrons that is comparable in strength to inner-atomic forces and variable on the atomic (attosecond) time scale in a controlled fashion. This controlled force constitutes an enabling technology for the reproducible generation of isolated attosecond pulses and their measurement attosecond pulses and their measurement. These, in turn, permit complete measurement of the electric field waveform of light. State-of-the-art chirped multilayer mirrors, have now advanced light waveform control to the limit of the wave cycle, making available near-single-cycle light pulses of a duration of 3.3 femtoseconds with controlled waveform. These pulses have pushed the frontier of attosecond pulse generation below the 100-attosecond frontier.