Optics

Magnets Can Change Liquid Color

The quality and size of electronic display screens may have gotten a lot better. We may also soon see erasable and rewritable electronic paper and ink that can change color electromagnetically, thanks to University of California, Riverside nanotechnologist ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 4 2007 - 5:24am

'Adaptive Optics' Breakthrough Achieved By Sandia

The ingenious system called adaptive optics, known for its computer control of subdivided, individually angled mirrors, is an efficient but expensive way to correct distortions in laser beams. The mirrors automatically adjust until an undistorted beam is o ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 4 2007 - 5:24am

UNH Researchers Prove Existence Of New Type Of Electron Wave

New research led by University of New Hampshire physicists has proved the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces: the acoustic surface plasmon, which will have implications for developments in nano-optics, high-temperature superconducto ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2007 - 8:36pm

Rethinking 70 Years Of Physics- The New 'Look' Of Superconductivity

Like the surface motif of a bubble bath, the spatial distribution of a magnetic field penetrating a superconductor can exhibit an intricate, foam-like structure. Ruslan Prozorov at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has observed these mystifyi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2007 - 10:19am

The Crowd Behavior Of Semiconductors

Like crowds of people, microscopic particles can act together under the right conditions. By exposing crowd behavior at the atomic scale, scientists discover new states and properties of matter. Now, ultrafast lasers have revealed a previously unseen type ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2007 - 4:19am

Wire Or Fiber, A Wave Is A Wave

In an experiment modeled on the classic “Young’s double slit experiment” and published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, researchers have powerfully reinforced the understanding that surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) move as waves and follow analogous ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 13 2007 - 2:11pm

Why Is The Hercules Dwarf Galaxy Shaped Like A Cigar?

The brand-new Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona has a gotten off to an astronomical start, helping an international team of astronomers learn that a recently discovered tiny companion galaxy to our Milky Way, named the Hercules Dwarf Galaxy, has t ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2007 - 6:18pm

Essilor Strengthens Its Polarized Lens Distribution Network With The Acquisition Of KBco

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, October 2 /PRNewswire/-- Essilor of America, a subsidiary of Essilor International, has acquired a majority stake in KBco, one of the largest polarized lens distributors in the United States. Created in 1987 and based in Centenn ...

Article - Anna Ohlden - Oct 2 2007 - 12:54am

All-Natural Single-Celled Diatom Could Make Paints And Cosmetics 'Green'

A plant-like micro-organism mostly found in oceans could make the manufacture of products, from iridescent cosmetics, paints and fabrics to credit card holograms, cheaper and ‘greener’. The tiny single-celled ‘diatom’, which first evolved hundreds of milli ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 5 2007 - 12:57pm

'Einstein Ring' Shows New Tiny Galaxy

A tiny galaxy,SDSSJ0737+3216 (lens redshift 0.3223, source redshift 0.5812), nearly halfway across the universe and the smallest in size and mass known to exist at that distance, has been identified by an international team of scientists. The scientists us ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 4 2007 - 9:19am