The science behind natural optical phenomena—colors in the sky, rainbows, halos, coronas, iridescence, glories, glitter patterns and auroras—will be the topic of a free talk at Rochester Institute of ...

Magneto-optical effects in plasmonic nanostructures represent an exciting frontier in the convergence of photonics, nanomagnetism and materials science. By harnessing the strong local electromagnetic ...

Light can twist matter in unexpected ways A new method reveals a hidden property of light that could power future ...

Everyone loves an optical illusion — even if they leave us completely stumped — and they're all around us in the natural world. From an underwater waterfall in the Indian Ocean to a surrealist scene ...

Optical illusions occur naturally in different habitats and conditions across the world. Cloud formations can sometimes make it seem like there's an ocean or a UFO in the sky. Whether it is salt flats ...

A new study explores the behavior of photons, the elementary particles of light, as they encounter boundaries where material properties change rapidly over time. This research uncovers remarkable ...

Every once in a while, you may look up towards the Sun and see strange bright lights on either side of it. Or perhaps you’ll be sitting in an aircraft, looking out the window at its shadow and see a ...

Plasmonics are special optical phenomena that are understood as interactions between light and matter and possess diverse shapes, material compositions, and symmetry-related behavior. The design of ...

Nature is brimming with color in almost every season. While the majority of colors are matte, some are shiny. Evolutionary biologist Casper van der Kooi wondered why shiny colors are so rare. He ...