Optics

By Charles Q. Choi, Inside Science- A laser could be created with air in a practical way, a new advance that could one day be used to help spot explosives or pollutants from afar, researchers say. Laser light is generated by pumping energy into atoms or o ...

Article - Charles Choi - Jul 11 2015 - 8:21pm

Giant Billboards In 3-D, No Glasses Needed

Engineers in Austria have given us a blessing and a curse- they have created a giant laser system that sends beams in different directions, which makes them visible from many different angles. The angular resolution is so fine that the left eye is presen ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 18 2015 - 10:00am

Optically Getting To The Same Side: How To Generating Möbius Strips Of Light

A collaboration of researchers have experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light's electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape. Möbius strips are easy ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 29 2015 - 5:51pm

Skyglow: Big Variations In The Radiance Of The Night

A team has undertaken what they call the most comprehensive examination of skyglow- variations in the radiance of the night sky- ever done and found remarkably large variations in artificial night sky brightness at the different observation sites. Light ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 12 2015 - 5:03pm

Gauguin As Experimental Printmaker Analyzed

French artist Paul Gauguin has had quite the resurgence- having a painting sell for nearly $300 million will do that- but the artist noted for his colorful paintings of Tahitian life was also a highly experimental printmaker. The techniques and materials G ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 15 2015 - 3:31pm

Energy-Space Photography Captures Light Behaving As A Wave And A Particle

Quantum mechanics tells us that light can behave simultaneously as a particle or a wave, but researchers haven't been able to capture both natures of light at the same time; the closest we have come is seeing either wave or particle at different times ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2015 - 9:52am

Wellcome Images Awards 2015- Science Becomes Art

Since they were pioneered by Robert Hooke 350 years ago, microscopes have been extending our vision. In the 21st century, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy, which uses a pinhole to remove out-of-focus light and allows 3D structure ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 9 2015 - 7:00pm

Old Tech May Lead To New AI Computing

Though every month we read about some new advance in artificial intelligence, how much progress is really being made? Neuromorphic computing has created software and electronic hardware that mimic brain functions and signal protocols but, like economic m ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2015 - 10:12am

Artificial Light At Night May Be Making Us Sick

Modern life and inadequate exposure to natural light during the day combined with overexposure to artificial light at night is believed by some to be harmful to the body's natural sleep/wake cycle. One of those who contends so is University of Connect ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2015 - 5:42pm

There's Nothing Wrong With Your Fundamental Mode, Do Not Adjust Your Picture

Most people don't realize that light can take different shapes. In the fundamental mode, light energy is most intense at the center and gradually fades towards the edge of the beam. Light also has higher order modes. For example, the energy pattern c ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 22 2015 - 9:30am