Harvard and MIT scientists are challenging the conventional wisdom about light, and they didn't need to go to a galaxy far, far away to do it.
Quantum Physics
Sep 25, 2013
139
12
(Phys.org)—A team of scientists from Scotland and the Czech Republic has created a real-life "tractor" beam, as featured in the Star Trek movies, which for the first time allows a beam of light to attract objects.
General Physics
Jan 25, 2013
18
0
Quantum mechanics is famous for saying that a tree falling in a forest when there's no one there doesn't make a sound. Quantum mechanics also says that if anyone is listening, it interferes with and changes the tree. And ...
Quantum Physics
Jun 2, 2011
44
3
In the center of our galaxy, hundreds of stars closely orbit a supermassive black hole. Most of these stars have large enough orbits that their motion is described by Newtonian gravity and Kepler's laws of motion. But a few ...
Astronomy
Aug 14, 2020
17
817
Whether in photosynthesis or in a photovoltaic system: if you want to use light efficiently, you have to absorb it as completely as possible. However, this is difficult if the absorption is to take place in a thin layer of ...
Optics & Photonics
Aug 25, 2022
8
1743
Scientists on Friday said that an experiment which challenged Einstein's theory on the speed of light had been flawed and that sub-atomic particles -- like everything else -- are indeed bound by the universe's speed limit.
General Physics
Jun 8, 2012
81
0
In work that could turn cell phones into sensors capable of detecting viruses and other minuscule objects, MIT researchers have built a powerful nanoscale flashlight on a chip.
Optics & Photonics
Apr 30, 2021
2
476
We live in a world where digital information is exploding. Some 90% of the world's data was generated in the past two years. The obvious question is: how can we store it all?
General Physics
Jun 20, 2013
29
0
Physicists in Darmstadt have been able to stop something that has the greatest possible speed and that never really stops. We're talking about light. Already a decade ago, physicists stopped it very for a short moment. In ...
General Physics
Aug 6, 2013
7
1
Dozens of times over the last decade NASA scientists have launched laser beams at a reflector the size of a paperback novel about 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) away from Earth. They announced today, in collaboration ...
Space Exploration
Aug 11, 2020
21
511
