Editor’s Picks

1. Mirrored Chip Could Enable Handheld Dark-Field Microscopes 2/24/2020

   Do a Google search for dark-field images, and you’ll discover a beautifully detailed world of microscopic organisms set in bright contrast to their midnight-black backdrops.

2. High-Speed Microscope Captures Fleeting Brain Signals 3/19/2020

   Electrical and chemical signals flash through our brains constantly as we move through the world, but it would take a high-speed camera and a window into the brain to capture their fleeting paths.

3. Stanford Researchers Shine Light On The Defects Responsible For Messy Behavior In Quantum Materials 2/24/2020

   In a future built on quantum technologies, planes and spaceships could be fueled by the momentum of light. Quantum computers will crunch through complex problems spanning chemistry to cryptography with greater speed and energy efficiency than existing processors.

4. Scientists Develop Safer Lead-Based Perovskite Solar Cell 2/19/2020

   Researchers at Northern Illinois University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, are reporting today (Feb. 19) in the journal Nature on a potential breakthrough in the development of hybrid perovskite solar cells.

5. Having An Eye For Colors: Printable Light Sensors 2/19/2020

   Cameras, light barriers, and movement sensors have one thing in common: They work with light sensors that are already found in many applications. In future, these sensors might also play an important role in telecommunications, as they enable data transmission via light.

6. Army Scientists Create Innovative Quantum Sensor 3/19/2020

   A quantum sensor could give Soldiers a way to detect communication signals over the entire radio frequency spectrum, from 0 to 100 GHz, said researchers from the Army.

7. Columbia Team Discovers New Way To Control The Phase Of Light Using 2D Materials 2/24/2020

   Optical manipulation on the nano-scale, or nanophotonics, has become a critical research area, as researchers seek ways to meet the ever-increasing demand for information processing and communications.

8. 5mm Diameter Motor Is Powered Directly With Light 2/19/2020

   Researchers at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, with colleagues from Poland and China used liquid crystal elastomer technology to demonstrate a rotary micromotor powered with light.

9. Turning Windows Into Power Plants 4/20/2011
   If a new development from labs at MIT pans out as expected, someday the entire surface area of a building’s windows could be used to generate electricity — without interfering with the ability to see through them.
10. Richardson Gains Foothold In Japan 1/15/1999
    The Richardson Grating Laboratory has established Tokyo-based RGL Japan...