Optics

Frontiers In Optics And Adventures In Table-Top Physics

Sure, high energy physics costs billions these days (and watch out for birds- and lightning)  but table-top experiments with tuned lasers and sensitive detectors can also continue to achieve the precision necessary for exploring the basic laws of physics a ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2010 - 11:09am

Quantum Repeater- Top Secret Messages Over Long Distances

Quantum cryptography is the technology of the future for military and financial organizations because it sends information as entangled particles of light- anyone who tries to tap into the information changes it in a way that reveals their presence. The da ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 25 2010 - 10:24am

An Invisibility Cloak For Time Also?

It's been the decade of metamaterials, with breakthroughs toward an invisibility cloak occurring every few months.   With conventional materials, light typically travels along a straight line, but with metamaterials, scientists can exploit additional ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2010 - 12:12pm

How Warm Is Light? Physicists Create A Bose-Einstein Condensate 'Super-Photon'

Physicists from the University of Bonn have developed a completely new source of light, a Bose-Einstein condensate consisting of photons, something not known to be possible, which may potentially be suitable for designing light sources resembling lasers th ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2010 - 4:00am

Solar Sails Are Already Old Tech- Get Ready For Solar Wings

We know that light has mass and that beaming enough light at something can push it away- solar sails that will move a craft through the cosmos are based on this idea and NASA tested that concept earlier today when it launched NanoSail-D, a nanosatellite (c ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Dec 7 2010 - 11:39am

Fast-Tint Protective Eyewear- Much Cooler Than It Sounds

In case you don't know it, the Navy is not the 1970s "Village People" branch of the military.  These guys do some cool stuff and are making even cooler toys to do it with. Want to find future tech for  megawatt-class laser beams in next-gene ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Feb 4 2011 - 12:21pm

Have Researchers Found A Way To Spot Rotating Black Holes?

One thing you probably know about black holes, no matter how much science you took, is that they have never actually been seen.   Instead, the science consensus is that masses that sit at the centers of galaxies like our own Milky Way are presumed to be bl ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Feb 15 2011 - 3:43pm

Restoring Hearing Using Infrared Light

University of Utah scientists have used invisible infrared light to make rat heart cells contract.  Sounds interesting but not revolutionary, right?   But they also used infrared light to cause toadfish inner-ear cells to send signals to their brain- which ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 27 2011 - 11:41pm

'Artificial Molecules'-- Researchers Build Antenna For Light

Researchers are reporting the construction of what they term "artificial molecules" and say they can use the technology to engineer a new generation of nanomaterials that control and direct the energy absorbed from light. Including an antenna tha ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2011 - 10:29am

How To Make Time Invisible

Researchers from Cornell say that by using a bit of electromagnetics wizardry they can create a 'hole' in space and keep it hidden- spatial cloaking.   Invisible time. We see things using light, of course, namely as light scatters on an object.   ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 30 2011 - 2:08pm