Light-scattering has long promised to provide a rapid, inexpensive, non-destructive means to obtain information. The scattering patterns contain a great deal of structure that is determined by the size, morphology and chemistry of the illuminated particles. While high-amplitude oscillations in the polarization state of the scattered light has enticed scientists for many years, very little information has been obtained from them. Over the last two decades a number of advances in theory and computational resources have made it possible to calculate the light-scattering from irregularly shaped particles. This has allowed researchers to obtain some system information from light-scattering signals, the age-old inversion problem. We explore some recent remote-sensing applications in atmospheric and planetary science.