An artist’s impression of a hollow nanowire emitting doughnut-shaped laser light Masato Takiguchi et al./ACS Photonics/American Chemical Society 2024 Tiny, hollow wires can produce doughnut-shaped laser light that could be used to levitate small objects or transmit information. Conventional lasers typically make beams that appear as a single, small point of light when they hit … Read more
A contact lens inscribed with the spiral design Laurent Galinier Lenses featuring a trippy, spiral design could offer an alternative to traditional multifocal lenses. They seem to produce clearer images than standard multifocals, even in dim light. The lenses were created by inventor Laurent Galinier. When Bertrand Simon at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School in … Read more
The eyes of insects like ants can detect the polarisation of light Razvan Cornel Constantin/Alamy A compass that relies on polarised light can use the sun to tell where magnetic north is, even when it is cloudy. It is based on how some insects navigate and could be used when conventional magnetic compasses aren’t reliable, … Read more
An image of the North America Nebula taken with the metalens Courtesy of Joon-Suh Park To take high-quality images of the stars, astronomers usually need thick, curved lenses to bend the light precisely. But researchers have designed a flat lens that can take sharp images of the night sky thanks to billions of nanostructures in … Read more
Close-up of a Morpho butterfly’s wing Shutterstock/Tomatito A thin film designed to mimic butterfly wings could keep cars cooler when applied to their exterior. Morpho butterflies have wings covered in nanostructures that bounce and bend incoming light to produce a blue colour that is vivid and vibrant when seen from many angles. Inspired by this, … Read more
Most incandescent bulbs are less energy-efficient than LEDs Shutterstock/marina_shikhantsova An incandescent lighting device that reuses some of the infrared light it emits could be as efficient as an LED light but contribute less to carbon emissions. Lighting accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s electric use and more than 10 per cent of … Read more