Editor’s Picks

1. 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.

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. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. On-Chip Observation Of THz Plasmons 11/4/2016

   Radiation in the terahertz (THz) frequency range is attracting large interest because of its manifold application potential for non-destructive imaging, next-generation wireless communication or sensing.

10. “Smart” Contact Lens Uses Optical Biosensing To Detect Glucose 9/30/2016

    Scientists at the University of Houston (UH) have developed a new approach to glucose-sensing contact lenses by integrating an optical sensor. Though the correlation between glucose levels in tear samples and traditional blood samples is not yet established, the researchers said that their “smart” contact lens prototype demonstrates the versatility of their biosensing technology and a possible non-invasive alternative to existing glucose monitors.