Science Art: Power spectrum of Siemens star with 1024 line pairs per image height, by Bautsch, 2012.
This is a Siemens star, a pattern used to calibrate optical equipment – to see how well the lens (or raster, or driver, or whatever) […]
optics
Camera lens based on a trilobite’s eye keeps objects in focus near and far.
Science News looks at the world through the eyes of Dalmanitina socialis, a creature extinct for 400 million years who could focus on objects as […]
A brittle star’s whole body is an eye.
Scientific American looks at how these starfish relatives don’t need eyes to see: And yet now there appears to be something far stranger about the […]
Science Art: Marconi Photo-Cell for Transmitter from Television Optics, 1938.
Embryonic television. I like how this device has an almost Lovecraftian vibe, as if sending moving pictures was a thing that involved mystical processes. What’s […]
A bit more evidence that Viking sunstones really worked.
PhysOrg returns to the sunstone – remember the sunstone? the calcite crystal that may have helped the Vikings plot courses at sea? that inspired this […]
Science Art: Red laser through irregular glass mj1, by Mariojan Photo, 2007
Click to embiggen vastly A red laser pointer. A chunk of “bad” glass. A blank wall. And here, a remarkable thing. From the Wikimedia Commons […]
Telescopic contact lenses
They’re not exactly pretty yet, but New Scientist has the skinny on a real James Bond-style super-gadget, telescopic contact lenses: Developed by a team led […]
Science Art: Text-fig. 5. – Model of electron paths, 1946
Click to embiggen It looks like a wrought-iron finial for a curtain rod. It’s actually a demonstration of how electrons can be used as a […]
Screen light too bright, can’t get to sleep at night (now, eyes won’t focus right).
I don’t normally go to Business Insider for science news, but they’ve actually got a pretty good rundown of recent research into the problems with […]
SONG: “Forget” by grant.
SONG: “Forget.” [Download] ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “Manipulating memory with light: Scientists erase specific memories in mice“, Science Daily, 9 October 2014, as used […]
We can un-remember for you, wholesale. (With light.)
Science Daily discusses UC Davis researchers who are using light to edit out specific memories: Optogenetics, pioneered by Karl Diesseroth at Stanford University, is a […]
Anti-lightning lasers zap storms.
Laboratory Equipment wards off bad weather with a new finding… that lasers can be used to divert lightning strikes: Currently, high-intensity lasers, produced with modern […]
This laser turns us *on*.
At least if we’re flies, it does. Nature has more on the laser beam that puts flies in the mood for love: Optogenetics — triggering […]
3D smartphone display, no glasses required.
We’re getting closer to having hologram projectors in our pockets, as befits people living in the future. PhysOrg reports on the latest step – a […]
Telescope contact lenses are a real thing.
Extreme Tech has the details on the contacts that let you see like an eagle: The center of the lens allows light to pass straight […]