A long-time staple of science fiction is the tractor beam, a technology in which light is used to move massive objects – recall the tractor beam in the movie Star Wars that captured the Millennium Falcon and pulled it into ...
Quantum Physics
Aug 15, 2012
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(Phys.org) -- In 2010 scientists discovered four 'monster' sized stars, with the heaviest more than 300 times as massive as our Sun. Despite their incredible luminosity, these exotic objects, located in the giant star cluster ...
Astronomy
Aug 7, 2012
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In December, MIT Media Lab researchers caused a stir by releasing a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle. But the experimental setup that enabled that video was designed for a much ...
General Physics
Mar 20, 2012
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By using optical equipment in a totally unexpected way, MIT researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow.
Engineering
Dec 13, 2011
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A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and able to transmit data ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 15, 2011
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For the first time, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in collaboration with a team from the University of Vienna, have managed to cool a miniature mechanical object to its lowest possible energy ...
Quantum Physics
Oct 5, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A giant Jupiter-like gas planet has been revealed to be the most light-thirsty object in the known universe -- a finding that may help astronomers better understand a mysterious characteristic of similar ...
Astronomy
Sep 27, 2011
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When semiconductor nanorods are exposed to light, they blink in a seemingly random pattern. By clustering nanorods together, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that their combined "on" time is increased ...
Nanophysics
Jun 23, 2011
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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
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Australia, the UK and US have for the first time used infrared motion capture technology outdoors to work out how kangaroos distribute their weight and the forces as they hop along.
