I read some things last year about super-absorbers and super-reflectors.
Scientists had worked out a moon-crater style texture that could be painted on a surface that would absorb nearly all the light that hit it. The black that resulted was "quite beautiful" according to observers.
Then there was super-reflectors that worked like a cross between a heat-pipe and a fibre optic cable. They discussed installing these tubes into houses as they reflected nearly 100% of the light that entered them and wouldn't require you to put lights up in darker areas. I think this was mentioned alongside an article on Seasonal Affective Disorder caused by low light levels in winter.
There was also news last year about super acoustic-absorption materials that would dampen all noise (and also a machine to produce a matching frequency to neutralise noise!).
Maybe in the near future we'll have air-con, light-con and sound-con!
If however you don't want the hassle of a leaking skylight, condensation and the possibility of hang-gliders taking photos of you eating lunch - get an electronic ballast with daylight tubes. Helvar do dimmable electronic ballasts for 5/6' fittings with optional dimmer and reflectors. Sylvania do fantastic natural light tubes for graphics studios too.
