Optical superoscillation without side waves
Optical superoscillation refers to a wave packet that can oscillate locally in a frequency exceeding its highest Fourier component. This intriguing phenomenon enables production of extremely localized waves that can break the optical diffraction barr.....»»
How gravitational waves could help detect Star Trek-style warp drive spaceships
How much do we really know about what else is out there in the universe?.....»»
Study: Giant ultrafast dichroism and birefringence with active nonlocal metasurfaces
The fine and efficient control of the properties of light at ultrafast speed down to the picosecond timescale is a challenging task, crucial for many scientific applications and technologies. For instance, in free-space optical links, manipulating on.....»»
YubiKeys are vulnerable to cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered side channel
Sophisticated attack breaks security assurances of the most popular FIDO key. Enlarge (credit: Yubico) The YubiKey 5, the most widely used hardware token for two-factor authentication based on the FIDO standard, contains.....»»
High-refractive-index-modulation nanocomposites for augmented reality displays
Holographic optical elements (HOEs) are essential in augmented reality (AR) displays, providing benefits such as design flexibility and improved optical efficiency. However, current materials' limited refractive index modulation hampers performance,.....»»
Scientists demonstrate giant THz Kerr effect via stimulated phonon polaritons
Terahertz (THz) waves and THz technologies have gradually opened a new style for communications, cloud-based storage/computing, information contest, and medical tools. With the advancement of THz technologies, studies on THz nonlinear optics have eme.....»»
Seismic echoes reveal a mysterious "donut" inside Earth"s core
About 2,890 kilometers beneath our feet lies a gigantic ball of liquid metal: our planet's core. Scientists like me use the seismic waves created by earthquakes as a kind of ultrasound to "see" the shape and structure of the core......»»
Data from space probes show that Alfvén waves drive the acceleration and heating of the solar wind
By studying data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe and the ESA Solar Orbiter, an international team of astrophysicists has found that Alfvén waves drive the acceleration and heating of the solar wind......»»
Spin-controlled generation of a complete polarization set with randomly interleaved plasmonic metasurfaces
Optical metasurfaces are finely crafted two-dimensional artificial nanostructures composed of meticulously designed arrays of ultrathin artificial atoms. These surfaces possess capabilities beyond natural materials, enabling multifunctional control o.....»»
Advances in optical micronanofiber-enabled tactile sensors and soft actuators
A perfect combination of fiber optics and micro/nanotechnology, optical micro/nanofiber (MNF) is a new type of micro/nano-waveguide structure developed in recent years......»»
Air conditioning poses a climate conundrum
This week, much of the US is suffering from yet another heat wave. So far this year, 15 countries have set records for high heat. Last July, the average global temperature, factoring in heat waves in multiple regions around the world, was likely the.....»»
Romance fraud doesn"t only happen online—it can turn into real-world deception
We often think of fraudsters as people on the opposite side of the world. They will manipulate and exploit victims through words on a computer screen, or loving messages through the phone. But romance fraud can also happen in person, with the fraudst.....»»
Arctic heat waves linked to sea ice loss, new study reveals
Amid global warming, heat waves are striking even the Arctic, a region once considered immune to such extreme weather events. Recent research reveals that these heat waves, particularly in the Barents-Kara Sea (BKS) during the boreal autumn, are not.....»»
New Sisyphus cooling technique could enhance precision of atomic clocks
Researchers in the Neutral Atom Optical Clocks Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Colorado and Pennsylvania State University recently devised a new sub-recoil Sisyphus cooling technique that could help t.....»»
Environmental policy in Brazil leads to less violence, researchers find
In December 2007, the then Brazilian government passed a law to curb the illegal destruction of the rainforest. A study by researchers from the Insper Research Institute in São Paulo and the University of Bonn now shows an interesting side effect: w.....»»
The leading alternative to GDP is languishing over a technical disagreement—with potentially grave consequences
Many commentators believe that the world should move away from measuring economic success in terms of GDP growth. Yes, growth has brought prosperity and untold riches, but it has had significant negative side effects for the planet, including climate.....»»
Cryptomator: Open-source cloud storage encryption
Cryptomator offers open-source, client-side encryption of your files in the cloud. It’s available for Windows, Linux, macOS and iOS. Cryptomator works with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, MEGA, pCloud, ownCloud, Nextcloud, and any other cloud.....»»
Authors propose multi-method framework for climate event attribution
At the two most recent meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, delegates agreed to establish a fund to help developing nations suffering loss and damage due to events linked to climate change, such as floods, heat waves.....»»
Sound drives "quantum jumps" between electron orbits
Cornell University researchers have demonstrated that acoustic sound waves can be used to control the motion of an electron as it orbits a lattice defect in a diamond, a technique that can potentially improve the sensitivity of quantum sensors and be.....»»
Researchers propose inexpensive 2.2-kilometer telescope that could make exoplanet movies
Can a kilometer-scale telescope help conduct more efficient science, and specifically for the field of optical interferometry? This is what a study recently posted to the preprint server arXiv hopes to address......»»
Fire outside Rivian"s Illinois plant damages multiple EVs; no injuries reported
The fire was reported in the parking lot on the north side of the 4-million-square-foot factory, located 130 miles south of Chicago, and the assembly plant was unaffected, the Normal Fire Department said in a statement to Reuters......»»