Designing next-generation optical antennas

Antennas catch radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, from the air and convert the energy into electrical signals that feed modern telecommunications. They can also convert electrical signals into radio waves. ...

SNoOPI: A flying ace for soil moisture and snow measurements

Work has begun on a new CubeSat mission that will demonstrate for the first time a new, highly promising technique for measuring soil moisture from space—data important for early flood and drought warnings as well as crop-yield ...

Dung beetles navigate better under a full moon

Of all nocturnal animals, only dung beetles can hold their course using polarized moonlight. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that beetles can use polarized light when its signal strength is weak, which ...

New optical memory cell achieves record data-storage density

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique that can store more optical data in a smaller space than was previously possible on-chip. This technique improves upon the phase-change optical memory cell, which uses light to ...

Scientists design new material to harness power of light

Scientists have long known that synthetic materials—called metamaterials—can manipulate electromagnetic waves such as visible light to make them behave in ways that cannot be found in nature. That has led to breakthroughs ...

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