/ 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. Cornell researchers have developed a two-phase liquid crystal system that can rapidly change—and hold—its shape, transforming from a transparent thin liquid film to an opaque emulsion, and then back again, all with a brief jolt of a high-frequency electric field. /news/2025-07-shapeshifting-liquid-crystal-emulsions.html Biochemistry Materials Science Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:20:12 EDT news671889700 Do you think you know which species are most vulnerable in an ecosystem? A novel analytical method developed by Italian physicists at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) suggests there's more to discover. In their recent study, they found out how species like lizards and rabbits in South Florida's cypress wetlands are among their ecosystem's most at-risk species, pointing to vulnerabilities that aren't always obvious. /news/2025-07-tool-hidden-roles-ecosystems.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:50:01 EDT news671365335 A study in Nature describes both the mechanism and the material conditions necessary for superfluorescence at room temperature. The work could serve as a blueprint for designing materials that allow exotic quantum states—such as superconductivity, superfluidity or superfluorescence—at high temperatures, paving the way for applications such as quantum computers that don't require extremely low temperatures to operate. /news/2025-05-solitonic-superfluorescence-paves-high-temperature.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 28 May 2025 11:00:10 EDT news667640101 What if the magnon Hall effect, which processes information using magnons (spin waves) capable of current-free information transfer with magnets, could overcome its current limitation of being possible only on a 2D plane? If magnons could be utilized in 3D space, they would enable flexible design, including 3D circuits, and be applicable in various fields such as next-generation neuromorphic (brain-mimicking) computing structures, similar to human brain information processing. /news/2025-05-unveil-3d-magnon-neuromorphic-quantum.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 22 May 2025 11:22:03 EDT news667131721 Laser frequency combs are light sources that produce evenly spaced, sharp lines across the spectrum, resembling the teeth of a comb. They serve as precise rulers for measuring time and frequency, and have become essential tools in applications such as lidar, high-speed optical communications, and space navigation. Traditional frequency combs rely on large, lab-based lasers. However, recent advancements have led to the development of chip-scale soliton microcombs, which generate ultrashort pulses of light within microresonators. /news/2025-05-chip-scale-soliton-microcombs-femtosecond.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 21 May 2025 15:40:30 EDT news667060828 Â鶹ÒùÔºicists at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a compact laser that emits extremely bright, short pulses of light in a useful but difficult-to-achieve wavelength range, packing the performance of larger photonic devices onto a single chip. /news/2025-04-physicists-compact-mid-infrared-pulse.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:00:11 EDT news663936961 An Aston University researcher has conducted the first experimental demonstration of intricate and previously theorized behaviors in the fundamental patterns that govern oscillatory systems in nature and technology. /news/2025-03-soliton-laser-unveils-complexities-synchronization.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Mar 2025 10:23:04 EDT news662030581 The physical interaction between two or more systems, also known as coupling, can give rise to unique and unexpected effects. In the field of optics, coupled light sources (e.g., lasers) can influence each other, producing complex light patterns that cannot be emitted by individual light-emitting systems. /news/2025-01-coupled-semiconductor-lasers-generate-optical.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:30:01 EST news657390200 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 The amorphous state of matter is the most abundant form of visible matter in the universe, and includes all structurally disordered systems, such as biological cells or essential materials like glass and polymers. /news/2025-01-physicists-experimentally-topological-defects-glasses.html Condensed Matter Soft Matter Mon, 13 Jan 2025 10:40:01 EST news655984959 A new on-surface chemical reaction enables the appearance of solitons in Ï€-conjugated polymers. The reaction, called indenyl coupling, reveals that structural parity drives the appearance of solitons in odd-membered Ï€ conjugated polymers. The results are a collaboration among scientists at IMDEA Nanociencia, CiQUS (Spain) and the Czech Academy of Science. /news/2024-10-surface-synthesis-enables-soliton-states.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Fri, 18 Oct 2024 04:29:48 EDT news648444586 Remember those big, clunky machines needed for super precise light measurements? Those days are fading thanks to tiny devices called microcombs. These chips can do the same job, but on a much smaller scale, opening doors for new applications. /news/2024-10-powerful-compact-optical-frequency-unique.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 11 Oct 2024 13:47:03 EDT news647873221 The invention of optical frequency combs revolutionized frequency metrology and time-keeping. Miniaturization of such combs onto photonic chips, primarily leveraging the microresonator Kerr soliton frequency comb, expands on these functionalities by providing portable solutions to ultrafast spectroscopy, laser frequency synchronization, as well as stable optical, millimeter wave, and microwave frequency generation. /news/2024-09-scientists-octave-spanning-soliton-frequency.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:24:03 EDT news644685842 Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a unique technique for synthesizing commonly used polymers, such as polystyrene, using radical polymerization. Here, a remote spark discharge from a Tesla coil, which is a high-voltage, high-frequency generator allows the reaction to proceed without requiring conventional catalysts or polymerization initiators. /news/2024-08-approach-common-plastics-remote-discharge.html Polymers Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:58:54 EDT news642063529 Dr. Asela Abeya, of SUNY Poly faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Â鶹ÒùÔºics, has collaborated with peers at the University at Buffalo and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on a research paper titled "On Maxwell-Bloch systems with inhomogeneous broadening and one-sided nonzero background," which has been published in Communications in Mathematical Â鶹ÒùÔºics. /news/2024-08-reveals-soliton-solutions-maxwell-bloch.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Optics & Photonics Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:34:04 EDT news641716440 Since the inception of microcomb, whose generation relies on Kerr nonlinearity in microresonator, the coherent soliton state has attracted intense research. Although the operation of sub-comb outputs is straightforward, as a noncoherent comb state, it was often overlooked in previous techniques. /news/2024-05-ultrasensitive-gas-empowered-synergy-graphene.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 14 May 2024 13:04:02 EDT news634910641 Tunable ultrafast lasers with adjustable parameters, such as wavelength, intensity, pulse width and laser states are desirable as next-generation intelligent light sources. Due to complex nonlinear effects within the ultrafast system, it is challenging for laser state active controlling (LSAC) in ultrafast fiber lasers, especially for passive mode-locking, in a convenient and controllable manner. /news/2024-04-team-ultrafast-laser-state-based.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 10 Apr 2024 17:00:03 EDT news631987201 The emergence of ultrafast laser pulse generation, marking a significant milestone in laser science, has triggered incredible progress across a wide array of disciplines, encompassing industrial applications, energy technologies, life sciences, and beyond. Among the various laser platforms that have been developed, fiber femtosecond oscillators, esteemed for their compact design, outstanding performance and cost-effectiveness have become one of the mainstream technologies for femtosecond pulse generation. /news/2024-03-visible-femtosecond-fiber-oscillators-advance.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:11:03 EDT news630774662 Mode-locked lasers are advanced lasers that produce very short pulses of light, with durations ranging from femtoseconds to picoseconds. These lasers are widely used to study ultrafast and nonlinear optical phenomena, but they have also proved useful for various technological applications. /news/2024-03-mode-lasers-hermitian-topological-physics.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:20:01 EDT news630576977 Dark matter is a ghostly substance that astronomers have failed to detect for decades, yet which we know has an enormous influence on normal matter in the universe, such as stars and galaxies. Through the massive gravitational pull it exerts on galaxies, it spins them up, gives them an extra push along their orbits, or even rips them apart. /news/2024-03-dark-stars-reveal.html Astronomy Sat, 23 Mar 2024 10:40:02 EDT news630322302 Topological solitons can be found in many places and at many different length scales. For example, they take the form of kinks in coiled telephone cords and large molecules such as proteins. At a very different scale, a black hole can be understood as a topological soliton in the fabric of spacetime. Solitons play an important role in biological systems, being relevant for protein folding and morphogenesis—the development of cells or organs. /news/2024-03-endless-domino-effect-reciprocal-topological.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Condensed Matter Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:30:43 EDT news630160239 In the realm of physics, synthetic dimensions (SDs) have emerged as one of the frontiers of active research, offering a pathway to explore phenomena in higher-dimensional spaces, beyond our conventional 3D geometrical space. The concept has garnered significant attention, especially in topological photonics, due to its potential to unlock rich physics inaccessible in traditional dimensions. /news/2024-03-team-synthetic-dimension-dynamics.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:12:03 EDT news630083521 Chip-based devices known as frequency combs, which measure the frequency of light waves with unparalleled precision, have revolutionized timekeeping, the detection of planets outside of our solar system and high-speed optical communication. /news/2024-03-frequency-boost-accuracy-timekeeping.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:46:03 EDT news629649961 We could be closer to understanding the mystery behind what dark matter is, following new research from physicists at King's College London. /news/2024-02-explosive-axion-stars-dark.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:38:52 EST news628169927 Solitons are quasiparticles that propagate along a non-dissipative wave. Put another way, they are waveforms that hold their shape as they move—like a single wave moving across the surface of a pond. They can also show particle-like behavior, such as collision, attraction, and repulsion. /news/2024-01-dissipative-solitons-dynamics.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:54:26 EST news625917264 Optical chip-related technology is the inevitable path to retain the validity of Moore's Law, which has become the consensus of academia and industry; it can effectively solve the speed and power consumption problems of electronic chips. This tech is expected to subvert the future of intelligent computing and ultra-high-speed optical communication. /news/2024-01-flat-soliton-microcomb-source.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 15 Jan 2024 14:11:47 EST news624550305 When light goes through a material, it often behaves in unpredictable ways. This phenomenon is the subject of an entire field of study called "nonlinear optics," which is now integral to technological and scientific advances from laser development and optical frequency metrology, to gravitational wave astronomy and quantum information science. /news/2024-01-kerr-solitons-boost-power-transmission.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:00:02 EST news624194579 In an innovative approach to controlling ultrashort laser flashes, researchers from the Universities of Bayreuth and Konstanz are using soliton physics and two pulse combs within a single laser. The method has the potential to drastically speed up and simplify laser applications. /news/2024-01-ultra-short-laser-demand-pulse.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:56:03 EST news624189361 When we last checked in with Caltech's Kerry Vahala three years ago, his lab had recently reported the development of a new optical device called a turnkey frequency microcomb that has applications in digital communications, precision time keeping, spectroscopy, and even astronomy. /news/2023-12-conjoined-racetracks-optical-device.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:57:23 EST news621269838 Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. In a study published in Nature, the first experimental evidence is presented by a Swedish-German-Chinese research collaboration. /news/2023-11-experimental-evidence-hopfions-crystals-dimension.html Condensed Matter Wed, 22 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news619867713