https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Radio telescopes are instruments that capture faint radio signals from space and convert them into images of celestial bodies. To observe distant black holes clearly, multiple radio telescopes must capture cosmic signals at exactly the same time, acting as a single unit. Research teams at KAIST have developed a new reference signal technology that uses laser light to precisely synchronize the observation timing and phase of these telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-frequency-lasers-enable-clearer-black.html Astronomy Thu, 15 Jan 2026 10:00:05 EST news687693117 Terahertz (THz) radiation, which occupies the frequency band between microwaves and infrared light, is essential in many next-generation applications, including high-speed wireless communications, chemical sensing, and advanced material analysis. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-thz-spectroscopy-bypasses-tradeoff-spectral.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:40:03 EST news687026009 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was involved in yet another first discovery recently available in pre-print form on arXiv from Cicero Lu at the Gemini Observatory and his co-authors. This time, humanity's most advanced space telescope found UV-fluorescent carbon monoxide in a protoplanetary debris disk for the first time ever. It also discovered some features of that disk that have considerable implications for planetary formation theory. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-webb-exocomets-nearby-star.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:54:28 EST news685716841 Researchers have developed a new technology that can shape the spectrum of light emitted from a laser frequency comb across the visible and near-infrared wavelengths with more precision than previously possible. This advance could provide an important new tool in the hunt for Earth-like planets outside our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-spectral-shaper-sculpts-laser-lines.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:00:01 EDT news680945659 The Milky Way is a rich and complex environment. We see it as a luminous line stretching across the night sky, composed of innumerable stars. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-images-reveal-milky-stunning-galactic.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:20:01 EDT news680955360 Researchers have designed and demonstrated stretchable waveguides that maintain efficient, stable signal transmission of surface plasmon polaritons even when bent, twisted or stretched. These plasmonic waveguides could make it possible to seamlessly embed advanced sensing, communication and health monitoring functions into everyday wearable materials. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-stretchable-waveguides-stable-transmission-bent.html Condensed Matter Mon, 06 Oct 2025 14:28:03 EDT news678979681 Scientists have unveiled a new approach to detecting gravitational waves in the milli-Hertz frequency range, providing access to astrophysical and cosmological phenomena that are not detectable with current instruments. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-approach-gravitational-milli-hz-frontier.html Astronomy Thu, 02 Oct 2025 19:00:01 EDT news678617116 Focused laser-like light that covers a wide range of frequencies is highly desirable for many scientific studies and for many applications, for instance, quality control of manufacturing semiconductor electronic chips. But creating such broadband and coherent light has been difficult to achieve with anything but bulky, energy-hungry tabletop devices. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-spectrum-microchip.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 12 Sep 2025 05:00:01 EDT news676799941 Relaying a message from point A to B can be as simple as flashing a thumbs-up at a stranger in an intersection, signaling them to proceed—nonverbal, clear, and universally understood. But light-based communication is rarely that straightforward. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-tiny-crystal-undeterred.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 09 Sep 2025 11:52:04 EDT news676637522 There has long been a mystery when calculating how an incoming light wave scatters off an object and becomes a modified, outgoing light wave. In particular, the time delay of the transition from one to the other comes out to be a complex number, a regular real number but with a nonzero imaginary part. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-previously-mysterious-imaginary-component.html General Physics Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:41:21 EDT news675074471 While they have been part of our human diet for centuries, legumes like peas and beans are ultimately seeds for the next generation of plants. To protect themselves from being eaten by animals and insects, they contain "antinutrients" that are hard for animals—and humans—to digest. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-method-legumes-easier-digest.html Biochemistry Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:20:01 EDT news670000838 In a study published in Science Advances, researchers from Technical University of Denmark and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid demonstrate a new device called an acoustic rainbow emitter (ARE) that takes in broadband white-noise signals from a point source that radiates sound equally in all directions and scatters it up so that different sound frequencies or pitches are emitted. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-3d-device-white-noise-acoustic.html General Physics Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:50:01 EDT news669023026 A watched pot never boils, goes the old saying, but many of us have at least kept an eye on the pot, waiting for the bubbling to start. It's satisfying to finally see the rolling boil, behind which complex physical mechanisms are at play. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-microbubble-dynamics-enable-precision-fluid.html Nanophysics Fri, 02 May 2025 12:10:01 EDT news665406157 Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed a novel Ising machine that utilizes surface acoustic waves as an effective carrier of dense information flow. This approach enables fast, energy-efficient solutions to complex optimization problems, offering a promising alternative to conventional computing methods based on von-Neumann architecture. The findings are published in the journal Communications Physics. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-acoustic-ising-machine-tackles-hard.html Condensed Matter Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:09:05 EDT news661435741 The phase and the group velocity of light propagating in conventional optical media cannot exceed the speed of light in vacuum. However, in so-called epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, light exhibits an infinite phase velocity and a vanishing group velocity for a particular color (frequency). https://phys.org/news/2025-02-scientists-optical-phase-group-velocities.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 07 Feb 2025 04:38:07 EST news658125483 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. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-compact-gen-photonics.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:00:01 EST news656756627 Imagine placing an object under a microscope and pressing a button to rearrange the surface atoms with atomic-scale precision. This once sci-fi scenario is now a reality thanks to pioneering research published in Applied Surface Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-laser-technique-atomic-scale-precision.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 02 Dec 2024 12:41:16 EST news652365668 X-ray free-electron lasers produce pulses of light that are exceptionally bright, making them powerful tools for studying ultrafast chemical reactions, biological processes, or probing the structure of materials at atomic scales. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-neat-precise-brighter-technologies-temporal.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:07:40 EST news651154056 An international research team has for the first time designed realistic photonic time crystals––exotic materials that exponentially amplify light. The breakthrough opens up exciting possibilities across fields such as communication, imaging and sensing by laying the foundations for faster and more compact lasers, sensors and other optical devices. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-photonic-crystals.html Condensed Matter Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:40:12 EST news650634001 Why are there atomic clocks but no nuclear clocks? After all, an atom's nucleus is typically surrounded by many electrons, so in principle it should be less susceptible to outside noise (in the form of light). A nucleus, for high-atomic number atoms, contains more particles than does the element's electrons. It holds nearly the entire mass of the atom while taking up only about 1/100,000th of the atom's space. While the first atomic clock was invented in 1949, no nuclear clock has yet been feasible. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-state-thorium-possibility-nuclear-clock.html General Physics Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:30:01 EDT news649591431 Researchers are excited about the potential of microcombs, miniature devices that generate precise time and frequency standards. These microcombs could revolutionize fields from high-speed communication, high-resolution measurements to precise atomic clocks. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-interdisciplinary-advances-microcombs-bridging-physics.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 11 Oct 2024 12:12:02 EDT news647867521 NASA's LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal), a ground station made of modified commercial hardware, has transmitted its first laser communications uplink to the TBIRD (TeraByte Infrared Delivery), a tissue box-sized payload formerly in low Earth orbit. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-nasa-terminal-transmits-laser-communications.html Space Exploration Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:29:22 EDT news647710158 Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new laser-based technique that could dramatically improve our ability to analyze a variety of materials and gases, including greenhouse gases. This new method, called "free-form dual-comb spectroscopy," offers a faster, more flexible and more sensitive way to analyze substances in the air and other materials. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-smart-laser-technology-greenhouse-gases.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:32:04 EDT news647695921 Physicists at the University of Southampton have tested and proven a 50-year-old theory for the first time using electro-magnetic waves. They have shown that the energy of waves can be increased by bouncing "twisted waves"—those with angular momentum—off of an object which is rotating in a specific way. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-amplification-theory.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 09 Sep 2024 11:40:03 EDT news645100801 Imagine how a phone call works: Your voice is converted into electronic signals, shifted up to higher frequencies, transmitted over long distances, and then shifted back down so it can be heard clearly on the other end. The process enabling this shifting of signal frequencies is called frequency mixing, and it is essential for communication technologies like radio and Wi-Fi. Frequency mixers are vital components in many electronic devices and typically operate using frequencies that oscillate billions (GHz, gigahertz) to trillions (THz, terahertz) of times per second. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nanostructures-enable-chip-lightwave-electronic.html Nanophysics Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:57:57 EDT news644684274 The world keeps time with the ticks of atomic clocks, but a new type of clock under development—a nuclear clock—could revolutionize how we measure time and probe fundamental physics. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-major-nuclear-clock-paves-ultraprecise.html General Physics Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news644659892 It is a scene many of us are familiar with: You're working on your laptop at the local coffee shop with maybe a half dozen other laptop users—each of you is trying to load websites or stream high-definition videos, and all are craving more bandwidth. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-tunable-metasurface-optical-space-path.html Nanophysics Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:08:50 EDT news641034527 The human eye can only see light at certain frequencies (called the visible spectrum), the lowest of which constitutes red light. Infrared light, which we can't see, has an even lower frequency than red light. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have now fabricated a device to increase or "up-convert" the frequency of short infrared light to the visible range. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-infrared-visible-device-2d-material.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:18:45 EDT news638108321 Astronomers from the Western Sydney University in Australia and elsewhere report the detection of a new supernova remnant (SNR) candidate. The newfound SNR candidate, dubbed "Raspberry" due to its morphology, was identified in the near side of the Milky Way's Scutum-Centaurus Arm. The findings were detailed in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-raspberry-sky-astronomers-supernova-remnant.html Astronomy Mon, 13 May 2024 09:49:08 EDT news634812540 A study published in Opto-Electronic Science discusses high-intensity spatial-mode steerable frequency up-converter toward on-chip integration. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-high-intensity-spatial-mode-steerable.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 01 May 2024 16:13:03 EDT news633798781