Here, a calcite crystal is struck with a laser operating at 445 nanometers, fluorescing and displaying properties of birefringence. Unlike the standard picture of light breaking into individual ...

The current cosmological model requires new physics beyond the standard model of elementary particles and fields, such as dark matter and dark energy. Their nature is unknown and so is that of the ...

In 1845, physicist Michael Faraday provided the first direct evidence that electromagnetism and light are related. Now, it turns out that this connection is even stronger than Faraday imagined. In his ...

While the terms "quantum physics" and "Theory of Relativity" are used casually every day, not many people know what they really mean. Yet these theories have had a profound impact not only on science ...

Many computer vision techniques infer properties of our physical world from images. Although images are formed through the physics of light and mechanics, computer vision techniques are typically data ...

In 1887, one of the most important experiments in the history of physics took place. American scientists Michelson and Morley failed to measure the speed of Earth by comparing the speed of light in ...

On one hand, the speed of light is just a number: 299,792,458 meters per second. And on the other, it’s one of the most important constants that appears in nature and defines the relationship of ...

How does color work, and how does the type of light source you use affect the colors you see? Appliance Science looks at the science of light and color. Richard Baguley Richard Baguley has been ...

A course offered at the University of Wisconsin has long been connecting seemingly unrelated fields — the sciences and arts — into an interdisciplinary education. Physics 109 — Physics in the Arts — ...

Can we turn back time? Ask a savvy physicist, and the answer will be “it depends.” Schemes for retrograde time travel abound but usually involve irreconcilable paradoxes and rely on outlandish ...