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. In the race to develop faster and more flexible wireless communication technologies, researchers are turning to an unexpected source: the same organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) found in smartphone screens and TVs. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-oleds-faster-longer-distance-wireless.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 18 Jul 2025 07:50:02 EDT news672043263 Fast data transmissions could be delivered in homes and offices through light-emitting diodes (LED) bulbs, complementing existing communication technologies and networks. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-future-internet-transmission.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Jul 2023 10:03:27 EDT news609498205 As technologies keep advancing at exponential rates and demand for new devices rises accordingly, miniaturizing systems into chips has become increasingly important. Microelectronics has changed the way we manipulate electricity, enabling sophisticated electronic products that are now an essential part of our daily lives. Similarly, integrated photonics has been revolutionizing the way we control light for applications such as data communications, imaging, sensing, and biomedical devices. By routing and shaping light using micro- and nanoscale components, integrated photonics shrinks full optical systems into the size of tiny chips. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-high-performance-visible-light-lasers-fingertip.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 04 Jan 2023 13:03:44 EST news592059799 As hard as diamond and as flexible as plastic, highly sought-after diamond nanothreads would be poised to revolutionize our world—if they weren't so difficult to make. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-easier-flexible-diamonds.html Materials Science Wed, 02 Mar 2022 16:33:47 EST news565461223 Most of us control light all the time without even thinking about it, usually in mundane ways: we don a pair of sunglasses and put on sunscreen, and close—or open—our window blinds. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-material-atoms-thick.html General Physics Fri, 22 Oct 2021 17:14:08 EDT news554141641 You can't see it with the naked eye, but a new fluorescent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) could shed light on the development of innovative applications in devices such as smartphone and television displays using near-infrared light. Created through the combined work of engineers from Polytechnique Montréal and chemists from Université de Montréal, this fluorescent OLED is 300% more efficient than existing OLEDs in its category. The research team recently published details in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-invisible-light-emitting-diodes-world.html Materials Science Thu, 12 Nov 2020 12:26:42 EST news524406399 Researchers have solved a major problem for optical wireless communications—the process by which light carries information between cell phones and other devices. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) pulse their light in a coded message that recipient devices can understand. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-faster-wireless-invisible.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 30 Jul 2020 11:22:32 EDT news515326946 What might look like jelly being stirred is actually water subjected to 20 times normal Earth gravity within ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge—as part of an experiment giving new insight into the behavior of wave turbulence. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-high-gravity.html General Physics Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:27:27 EST news498299244 It's man vs machine this week as Google's artificial intelligence programme AlphaGo faces the world's top-ranked Go player in a contest expected to end in another victory for rapid advances in AI. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-ready-rematch-machine-ancient-game.html Computer Sciences Sun, 21 May 2017 09:59:40 EDT news414579569 Control of light-matter interaction is central to fundamental phenomena and technologies such as photosynthesis, lasers, LEDs and solar cells. City College of New York researchers have now demonstrated a new class of artificial media called photonic hypercrystals that can control light-matter interaction in unprecedented ways. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-physicists-photonic-hypercrystals-light-matter-interaction.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 05 May 2017 11:44:12 EDT news413203446 (Phys.org)—According to a new study, there are more familiar strangers in our lives than friends, coworkers, and all other acquaintances combined. Encounters with familiar strangers, defined as pairs of individuals who repeatedly encounter each other but have never been acquainted, has so far been overlooked in research on human networks. The new study finds that familiar strangers may play a significant role in processes such as information sharing and disease spreading. https://phys.org/news/2016-12-encounters-familiar-strangers-overlooked-role.html General Physics Fri, 09 Dec 2016 09:30:01 EST news400488296 (Phys.org)—Researchers have fabricated a silicon optical antenna that is somewhat like an extremely small, special kind of prism. This is because when a red light shines on the optical antenna, the light turns right, but when the light is another color such as orange, it turns left. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-optical-antenna.html Nanophysics Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:20:02 EDT news385787143 Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp—that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless technology. https://phys.org/news/2016-02-internet-wi-fi.html Telecom Tue, 23 Feb 2016 08:08:48 EST news375437321 Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a way to significantly boost the energy that can be harnessed from sunlight, a finding that could lead to better solar cells or light detectors. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-quantum-electrons-metal-dielectric-interface.html General Physics Thu, 05 Nov 2015 07:16:29 EST news365930179 More luminous and energy efficient than LEDs, white lasers look to be the future in lighting and light-based wireless communication. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-world-white-lasers.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 29 Jul 2015 06:29:01 EDT news357370121 It's like using fiber optics to communicate – only without the fiber. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-faster.html Telecom Fri, 03 Jul 2015 08:11:20 EDT news355129872 At the Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress last week, MIT researchers received one of the best-paper awards for a new system, dubbed RoadRunner, that uses GPS-style turn-by-turn directions to route drivers around congested roadways. https://phys.org/news/2014-09-traffic-congestion-remotely.html Engineering Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:00:17 EDT news330069599 (Phys.org) —Scientists say "Li-Fi," Wi-fi connectivity from a light bulb, is making new advancements. Chi Nan, information technology professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, at work with a research team of scientists from Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spoke to the official news agency Xinhua about the progress. The news, posted on October 17, is that a microchipped bulb can produce data speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), which is faster than the average broadband connection in China. She said it would take only a one-watt light emitting diode (LED) lightbulb to connect four computers to the Internet, based on the principle that light can be used as a carrier instead of traditional radio frequencies. Her team hopes to present Li-Fi kits at the China International Industry Fair, an event that focuses on new industries, in Shanghai next month. Those advancements are to be taken within reason that the technology, she said, remains in its infancy; microchip design and optical communication controls would need more attention before there is any conversation about mass-market Li-Fi. https://phys.org/news/2013-10-shanghai-prof-li-fi-advance-kits.html Telecom Mon, 21 Oct 2013 04:22:04 EDT news301548085 Tiny LED lights now being developed could deliver Wi-Fi-like internet communications, while simultaneously displaying information, and providing illumination for homes, offices and a whole host of other locations. https://phys.org/news/2013-01-multi-tasking-micro-lights-revolution.html Hi Tech & Innovation Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:44:29 EST news278318648 (Phys.org)—"We believe wireless communications should be as reliable as lighting." That is a company motto of startup PureVLC (Visible Light Communication), which aims to connect the two—communications and light. They have an approach that could be an alternative to radiofrequency spectrum, as there are worries about "running out of gas" because demand grows for space. "We talk about the Internet of Things where every device is interconnected, but without more bandwidth it will be impossible to provide reliable communications to all of these 'things,'" say company sources. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-li-fi-edinburgh-prof-seeds.html Hi Tech & Innovation Sat, 06 Oct 2012 10:30:01 EDT news268732555 Scientists at the Smithsonian and their colleagues have discovered a new mechanism of animal mating plug production. In the giant wood spider Nephila pilipes, a highly sexually dimorphic and polygamous species, many small males compete with one other for access to a few huge females. During copulation these males are known to sever their own genitals in an attempt to plug the female, thereby gaining paternity advantage by preventing other males from mating with her. https://phys.org/news/2012-08-female-spiders-unwanted-sex-males.html Plants & Animals Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:06:21 EDT news263059562 With its latest operating system update, Apple Inc. is poised to strike a blow to wireless carriers by making free texting more ubiquitous. https://phys.org/news/2011-10-apple-imessage-texting-aim-wireless.html Telecom Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:20:01 EDT news237818897 (PhysOrg.com) -- The next time you look up in the sky and think you are seeing a flock of geese flying south for the winter, take a closer look. If you are in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, these flocks may actually be robots from the Laboratory of Intelligence Systems. https://phys.org/news/2011-09-flocking-robots-sky-video.html Robotics Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:20:01 EDT news236346145 In a report published today in the journal Genome Research, scientists report finding strong genetic evidence supporting the theory there are several species of killer whales (Orcinus orca, also known as orcas) throughout the world's oceans. https://phys.org/news/2010-04-genomic-analysis-mulitples-species-killer.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:30:17 EDT news191158193