Optics

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

By Coupling Photons To Atoms In Glass Fiber, Time Is Stopped

Light is a useful tool for quantum communication, but it has one major disadvantage- it travels at the speed of light and sometimes things need to be kept in place, or at least slowed down. Like with trains all sharing a track, you can't have one expr ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 8 2015 - 10:12am

New Technique Reduces Halo Effect Caused By Camera Lenses

In a recent study, scientists have presented a new technique that significantly reduces the halo effect that is generated when using multi-focal. contact and intra-ocular, lenses and looking at bright point sources in dark conditions. Presbyopia is a resul ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2015 - 9:00am

Liquid Tunable Nanolaser Developed

Scientists have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser and it's tunable in real time, meaning you can quickly and simply produce different colors, a unique and useful feature. The laser technology could lead to practical applications, such as a n ...

Article - News Staff - May 2 2015 - 12:00pm

Lights Changes Sleep Patterns

By Rebecca Boyle, Inside Science-- When light bulbs colonize our homes, humans get much less sleep. It's an intuitive idea, but a new study measures this effect in a real-life situation for the first time by examining hunter-gatherers in Argentina. C ...

Article - Inside Science - Jul 14 2015 - 11:00am