Discovery alters conventional understanding of sight

A discovery by a team of researchers led by a Syracuse University physicist sheds new light on how the vision process is initiated. For almost 50 years, scientists have believed that light signals could not be initiated unless ...

Nanoscale waveguide for future photonics

The creation of a new quasiparticle called the "hybrid plasmon polariton" may throw open the doors to integrated photonic circuits and optical computing for the 21st century. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy ...

Melanopsin looks on the bright side of life

Better known as the light sensor that sets the body's biological clock, melanopsin also plays an important role in vision: Via its messengers-so-called melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells, or mRGCs-it forwards information ...

Ecologists get fish eye view of sexual signals

Carotenoid pigments are the source of many of the animal kingdom's most vivid colours; flamingos' pink feathers come from eating carotenoid-containing shrimps and algae, and carotenoid colours can be seen among garden birds ...

Taking the twinkle out of the night sky

If you are like most people, you probably enjoy the twinkling of stars that blanket the sky on a clear summer night. If you are an astronomer, chances are you find it extremely annoying.

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