News tagged with light waves

Electrons in concert: A simple probe for collective motion in ultracold plasmas

(PhysOrg.com) -- Collective, or coordinated behavior is routine in liquids, where waves can occur as atoms act together. In a milliliter (mL) of liquid water, 1022 molecules bob around, colliding. When a bre ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new way to measure Earth's magnetosphere

US researchers have demonstrated the potential use of a new way to measure properties of Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds the planet.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 04, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Nanometer-scale growth of cone cells tracked in living human eye

Humans see color thanks to cone cells, specialized light-sensing neurons located in the retina along the inner surface of the eyeball. The actual light-sensing section of these cells is called the outer segment, which is ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 15

Researchers transfer the concept of an optical invisibility cloak to sound waves

Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Counting atoms with glass fiber

(PhysOrg.com) -- Glass fiber cables are indispensable for the internet – now they can also be used as a quantum physics lab. The Vienna University of Technology is the only research facility in the world, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Researchers adapt classic antennas to harness more power from the sun

Some solar devices, like calculators, only need a small panel of solar cells to function. But supplying enough power to meet all our daily needs would require enormous solar panels. And solar-powered energy collected by panels ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Using photons to manage data

Managing light to carry computer data, such as text, audio and video, is possible today with laser light beams that are guided along a fibre-optic cable. These waves consist of countless billions of photons, ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0

New light at the end of the tunnel

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of scientists successfully concentrated the energy of infrared laser pulses using a nano funnel enabling them to generate extreme ultraviolet light pulses, which repeated ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Erasing history? Temporal cloaks adjust light's throttle to hide an event in time

Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., have demonstrated for the first time that it's possible to cloak a singular event in time, creating what has been described as a "history editor." In a feat of Einstein-inspired ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (15) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Physicists localize 3-D matter waves for first time (w/ video)

University of Illinois physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time how three-dimensional conduction is affected by the defects that plague materials. Understanding these effects is important ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 07, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Gravitational waves that are 'sounds of the universe'

Einstein wrote about them, and we're still looking for them -- gravitational waves, which are small ripples in the fabric of space-time, that many consider to be the sounds of our universe.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Space image: New supernova remnant lights up

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are witnessing the unprecedented transition of a supernova to a supernova remnant, where light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 12

Graphene may open the gate to future terahertz technologies

Nestled between radio waves and infrared light is the terahertz (THz) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. By adding a nanoscale bit of graphene, researchers have found a better way to tune radiation for a THz transmitter.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

'Oscar Madison' approach to solar cells may outshine 'Felix Unger' design

Sometimes neatness may not be necessary. Researchers have demonstrated that a tangled coating of randomly positioned nanowires can increase solar cell efficiency by absorbing more light.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Physicist detects movement of macromolecules engineered into our food

Toxin proteins are genetically engineered into our food because they kill insects by perforating body cell walls, and Professor Rikard Blunck of the University of Montreal's Group for the study of membrane proteins (GEPROM) ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation, particularly radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye (about 400–700 nm, or perhaps 380–750 nm.) In physics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.

Three primary properties of light are:

Light, which exists in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics.

For more information about Light, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.