Optics

Edible Silk Optics Will Mean Safer Food

Scientists at Tufts University's School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to design an edible optical sensor that can be placed in produce bags to detect harmful levels of bacteria and consumed right along with th ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2008 - 10:06am

Laser Frequency Combs Mean Precision Rulers To Measure The Accelerating Universe

Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope of a new calibration system for precise spectrogra ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2008 - 6:14pm

Extra-Ocular Sight For The Blind? 'Skin Vision' In Humans, Says Professor

Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky from Tel Aviv University believes that humans may have an ability to "see" colors and shapes- with their skin. He outlines his 'optic-less imaging model' in a chapter of a new book, "Advances in Information ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2008 - 1:28pm

Jupiter Stars In The Sharpest Ground-Based Whole-Planet Picture Ever Taken

A record two-hour observation of Jupiter using a new technique to remove atmospheric blur has produced the sharpest whole-planet picture ever taken from the ground. The series of 265 snapshots reveal changes in Jupiter's smog-like haze, probably in re ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 2 2008 - 8:53am

Protect Coastlines From Water Through An Invisible Cloak- Seriously

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have tested an ‘invisibility cloak’ that could reduce the risk of large water waves overtopping coastal defences. Mathematicians at Liverpool, working with physicists at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientif ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 3 2008 - 7:30am

Gravitational Lensing, A Cosmic Eye And Some New Light On Galaxy Formation

LBG J2135-0102 (also known as the "Cosmic Eye" due to its morphological similarity to the Egyptian "Eye of Horus") was discovered from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image in an effort to survey high redshift galaxy clusters. This gala ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 11 2008 - 7:14pm

Silicon Cores Advance Fiber Optic Technology

Optical science has taken another leap forward. Increasing amounts of technologies rely on the usage of optic fibers for transmission of phone calls, TV broadcasts, and the internet. Optical fibers allows a higher bandwidth which means faster downloads, an ...

Article - Erin Richards - Dec 15 2008 - 1:35am

Photonics Emerges From The Shadows

The name has been around for four decades, but only now is a recognizable photonics community emerging in Europe. A European study has documented a fast-growing sector of more than 2100 companies and 700 research laboratories. In 2005, Europe’s photonics s ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2008 - 2:06pm

May The Photon Force Be With You: Harnessing Light To Drive Nanomachines

Science fiction writers have long envisioned sailing a spacecraft by the optical force of the sun’s light. But, the forces of sunlight are too weak to fill even the oversized sails that have been tried. Now a team led by researchers at the Yale School of E ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2008 - 10:30am

Ultra Wideband Radio On A Beam Of Light

Multiple high-definition videos and other data-rich services may soon stream through homes, offices, ships and planes via new hybrid optical/ultra-wideband-radio systems developed by European researchers. Moshe Ran, Coordinator of the EU-funded project, UR ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 23 2008 - 2:13pm