Discovered in the early 1960s by rocket-borne X-ray detectors, Cygnus X-1 is a binary system containing a supergiant star and a stellar-mass black hole. That black hole is both accreting matter — ...

Changing light's polarization can reverse the structure of a patterned light field, opening a new way to control geometry and information in optics. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Light can be bent, focused, or ...

Physicists have succeeded in measuring geometric properties of energy bands in light crystals. Physicists have succeeded in measuring geometric properties of energy bands in light crystals.

They recreate how a camera would see objects traveling at 99.9% of the speed of light, revealing surprising relativistic illusions.

Laser light traveling through ornately microfabricated glass has been shown to interact with itself to form self-sustaining wave patterns called solitons. Laser light traveling through ornately ...

Figure.1 | Tailoring VCSEL performance through cavity geometry engineering. (a) Five distinct cavity geometries—circular, square, D-shaped, mushroom, and pentagonal—enable control over the output ...

Anila Quayyum Agha is an artist who invites you to step closer to her work. To lean in, observe patterns, follow a stitch of thread or a beam of light. Her pieces are large—especially the laser-cut ...