There is a single light of science and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.
Most of us can remember a time when a birthday - especially if it was one's own - brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.
Our solution on 'The Simpsons' is to do jokes that people who have an education or some frame of reference can get. And for the ones who don't it doesn't matter because we have Homer banging his head and saying 'D'oh!'