Optics

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

Optical WLAN- Downloads At The Speed Of Light

The future of networking may mean streaming high-definition movies at blazing fast speeds and the routers are the lights in the room. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, have deve ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2011 - 6:03pm

How To Make A Rainbow

My wife and I once saw a rainbow and we discussed how it happened. She listened somewhat patiently for the first few sentences and then told me I was spoiling the magic of the rainbow, like it was somehow less romantic if she knew how it happened. (1) Men, ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 2 2011 - 7:30pm

Airy Beams- Light Rays Moving Without Diffraction In A Curved Arc In Free Space

One of the earliest lessons science students learn is that a beam of light travels in a straight line and fan out, or diffract, as they travel. Recently it was discovered that light rays can travel without diffraction in a curved arc in free space. These r ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2011 - 2:52pm

What Color Is An Orange?

What Color Is An Orange? A question like that, here at science20.com, just has to be a trick question. It is possible, by the application of common sense arguments, to prove to a scientific level of certainty that an orange is absolutely not orange. How d ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Aug 14 2011 - 10:04am