/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Imagine a whirlpool spinning in a river, or a tornado swirling through the sky. They don't just spin on the spot: they travel forward while maintaining that spiraling motion inside them. These twisting motions, called vortices, are powerful and organized spirals. Now, imagine light that behaves the same way: a beam of light that spins as it moves forward. This "twisted" light, known as an optical vortex, can carry more information than normal light, opening the door to faster internet and ultra-secure communications. /news/2025-08-ultra-thin-materials-optical-vortices.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:27:03 EDT news674836021 An evaporating colloidal particle–laden droplet leaves behind a ring-like residue after drying. We routinely observe this ubiquitous phenomenon for dried coffee drops; thus, it is known as the "coffee-ring effect." As a droplet evaporates, the edges dry faster than the center, pulling fluid—and suspended particles—outward. This creates a dense ring of material at the periphery of the droplet. It's a familiar sight to anyone who's spilled tea or coffee, but for scientists working on coatings and inks, this effect can be frustrating. In many applications, a uniform deposit is far more useful than a ring. /news/2025-07-coffee-saucer-patterns-graphene-oxide.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 17 Jul 2025 08:25:04 EDT news671959492 A multinational research team, including engineers from the University of Cambridge and Zhejiang University, has developed a breakthrough in miniaturized spectrometer technology that could dramatically expand the accessibility and functionality of spectral imaging in everyday devices. /news/2025-07-plastic-based-spectrometers-compact-solution.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:15:51 EDT news671444135 Scientists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, published in close collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize our ability to control light-matter interactions. /news/2025-06-scientists-technique-capturing-ultra-intense.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:02 EDT news670068479 Infrared optoelectronic functional materials are essential for applications in lasers, photodetectors, and infrared imaging, forming the technological backbone of modern optoelectronics. Traditionally, the development of new infrared materials has relied heavily on trial-and-error experimental methods. However, these approaches can be inefficient within the extensive chemical landscape, as only a limited number of compounds can achieve a balance of several critical properties simultaneously. /news/2025-05-machine-approach-discovery-high-infrared.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Fri, 09 May 2025 12:51:02 EDT news666013861 The Field Museum in Chicago and the Foundation for Scientific Advancement reported that sediment-encased maturation of pine resin produces a hardened, translucent substance that closely mimics natural copal and amber in appearance, texture, and chemical signature. /news/2025-03-scientists-lab-grown-amber-resin.html Biotechnology Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:20:01 EDT news662202619 Long-wave infrared birefringent crystals are essential materials in infrared optical applications in fields such as infrared imaging, laser technology, and optical communications. Due to limitations in birefringence, infrared transmission, and crystal growth, high-performance long-wave infrared birefringent crystals have rarely been reported. /news/2025-03-oxygenation-strategy-facile-route-infrared.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:48:02 EDT news662132881 A study led by the University of Portsmouth has achieved unprecedented precision in detecting tiny shifts in light displacements at the nanoscale. This is relevant in the characterization of birefringent materials and in high-precision measurements of rotations. /news/2025-03-quantum-unprecedented-precision-displacement.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:14:04 EDT news661698840 The ultrafast dynamics and interactions of electrons in molecules and solids have long remained hidden from direct observation. For some time now, it has been possible to study these quantum-physical processes—for example, during chemical reactions, the conversion of sunlight into electricity in solar cells and elementary processes in quantum computers—in real time with a temporal resolution of a few femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES). /news/2025-03-method-electron-motion-solids-unveiled.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:31:04 EDT news660915061 Terahertz (THz) waves, situated between the microwave and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, have drawn considerable attention over the past two decades. /news/2025-01-scientists-device-modulate-polarization-thz.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:03:03 EST news656852581 In the world of modern optics, frequency combs are invaluable tools. These devices act as rulers for measuring light, enabling breakthroughs in telecommunications, environmental monitoring, and even astrophysics. But building compact and efficient frequency combs has been a challenge—until now. /news/2025-01-compact-gen-photonics.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:00:01 EST news656756627 Copper-oxide (CuO2) superconductors, such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212), have unusually high critical temperatures. Optical reflectivity measurements of Bi2212 have shown that it exhibits strong optical anisotropy. However, this has not been studied through optical transmittance measurements, which can offer more direct insights into bulk properties. /news/2024-12-room-temperature-superconductivity-uncover-optical.html Optics & Photonics Superconductivity Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:41:03 EST news653226061 Researchers at MIT recently published the first results of an experiment aimed at searching for axion dark matter by probing the axion-induced birefringence of electromagnetic waves. While these findings, published in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters, did not lead to the observation of signals associated with these hypothetical dark matter particles, they established a new technique to search for axions using a tunable optical cavity. /news/2024-10-results-axion-dark-birefringent-cavity.html Astronomy Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:40:01 EDT news648301156 Advancements in quantum information technology are paving the way for faster and more efficient data transfer. A key challenge has been ensuring that qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information, can be transferred between different wavelengths without losing their essential properties, such as coherence and entanglement. /news/2024-10-wavelength-conversion-paves-efficient-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:25:03 EDT news648228301 The negative impact of human activity on Earth doesn't just affect our planet's atmosphere—it goes much deeper, into its soils. For instance, excessive application of manure or sewage sludge can increase heavy metal concentrations in agricultural land where vital crops are grown. One of these heavy metals is zinc, a micronutrient necessary for plant and animal health. In excess, however, zinc can be extremely damaging to sensitive plant species. /news/2024-07-reveals-key-gene-metals-soil.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Thu, 18 Jul 2024 16:04:59 EDT news640537495 While taking snapshots with the high-speed electron camera at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory, researchers discovered new behavior in an ultrathin material that offers a promising approach to manipulating light that will be useful for devices that detect, control or emit light, collectively known as optoelectronic devices, and investigating how light is polarized within a material. Optoelectronic devices are used in many technologies that touch our daily lives, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibers and medical imaging. /news/2024-07-high-electron-camera-uncovers-behavior.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:38:02 EDT news639841081 The diffraction of light is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature where waves spread out as they propagate. This spreading of light beams during propagation limits the efficient transmission of energy and information. Therefore, scientists have endeavored to suppress diffraction effects to better maintain the shape and direction of light beams. /news/2024-04-propagating-dimensions-deforming-versatile-diffractive.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:03:23 EDT news631792999 Mulberry silk is a natural protein fiber that is light, soft and fine in nature, known as the "second skin of the human body" and "Queen of fibers." China is the origin of the world's sericulture industry. /news/2024-04-chinese-scientists-reveal-mechanism-silkworm.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:00:51 EDT news631450847 Quantum imaging is a growing field that takes advantage of the counterintuitive and "spooky" ability of light particles, or photons, to become linked, or entangled, under specialized circumstances. If the state of one photon in the entangled duo gets tweaked, so does the other, regardless of how far apart the two photons might be. /news/2024-03-polarization-quantum-imaging.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 20 Mar 2024 09:52:23 EDT news630147139 For a long time, it was thought that amorphous solids do not selectively absorb light because of their disordered atomic structure. However, a new uOttawa study disproves this theory and shows that amorphous solids actually exhibit dichroism, meaning that they selectively absorb light of different polarizations. /news/2024-02-scientists-reveal-formless-solids.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:51:49 EST news628426306 Absolutely empty—that is how most of us envision the vacuum. Yet, in reality, it is filled with an energetic flickering: the quantum fluctuations. /news/2023-11-tracking-quantum-fluctuations-vacuum-explore.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 13 Nov 2023 10:25:03 EST news619093501 Future missions will be able to find signatures of violating the parity-symmetry in the cosmic microwave background polarization more accurately after a pair of researchers has managed to take into account the gravitational lensing effect, reports a new study in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review D, selected as an Editors' Suggestion. /news/2023-11-gravitational-lensing-significant-effect-cosmic.html Astronomy Thu, 02 Nov 2023 09:31:03 EDT news618136261 A team led by scientists and engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis, has created a unique, record-setting material that can bend one infrared ray of light in two directions. /news/2023-09-record-setting.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 27 Sep 2023 11:34:03 EDT news615033242 A "beautiful effect" predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar—a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, according to a Cornell astrophysicist. /news/2023-05-neutron-star-x-rays-reveal-photon.html Astronomy Thu, 04 May 2023 11:03:04 EDT news602416982 An international team of molecular chemists, physicists and nanomolecular scientists has found the molecule responsible for the bright, white-colored stripes sported by the Pacific cleaner shrimp. The study is published in Nature Photonics. Diederik Wiersma with the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team and explaining why it has such pertinence to the creation of photonic materials. /news/2023-04-scientists-molecule-responsible-bright-white.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:40:01 EDT news601896168 Fluid dynamics researchers use many techniques to study turbulent flows like ocean currents, or the swirling atmosphere of other planets. Arezoo Adrekani's team has discovered that a mathematical construct used in these fields provides valuable information about stress in complex flow geometries. /news/2023-01-stresses-complex-fluids.html Soft Matter Fri, 27 Jan 2023 15:36:14 EST news594056162 Already used in computers and MRI machines, superconductors—materials that can transmit electricity without resistance—hold promise for the development of even more advanced technologies, like hover trains and quantum computing. Yet, how superconductivity works in many materials remains a mystery that limits its applications. /news/2022-11-superconductivity-newly-discovered-kagome-metals.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Nov 2022 16:04:03 EST news587059441 Every second, 100 trillion neutrinos pass through the human body. These tiny, almost massless particles travel tremendous distances through space while carrying information about their sources and are created by some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. But neutrinos are incredibly difficult to detect, requiring a one-of-a-kind detector that can "see" these nearly invisible particles. /news/2022-10-newly-optical-effect-icecube-neutrino.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 24 Oct 2022 10:00:13 EDT news585824409 A Rice University team led by professors Matteo Pasquali and Angel Martí has simplified handling of the highly valuable nanotubes to make them more suitable for large-scale applications, including aerospace, electronics and energy-efficient materials. /news/2022-06-heat-tolerant-stable-boron-nitride-nanotube.html Nanomaterials Thu, 23 Jun 2022 12:54:45 EDT news575207680 Polymers, large molecules made up of repeating smaller molecules called monomers, are found in nearly everything we use in our day-to-day lives. Polymers can be natural or created synthetically. Natural polymers, also called biopolymers, include DNA, proteins, and materials like silk, gelatin, and collagen. Synthetic polymers make up many different kinds of materials, including plastic, that are used in constructing everything from toys to industrial fiber cables to brake pads. /news/2022-06-polymer-mesophase.html Polymers Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:28:42 EDT news574680520