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The author of Skulls in the Stars is an associate professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
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Category Archives: Invisibility
Invisibility physics: can charged particles self-oscillate?
Time to return to my long-delayed series of posts on the history of invisibility physics! The first two posts were: Acceleration without radiation (1910), describing Ehrenfest’s arguments suggesting acceleration without radiation could be possible, Schott’s radiationless orbits (1933), describing G.A. … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Physics
5 Comments
Optics basics: Inverse problems
In previous posts, I’ve talked at some length about computed tomography (CT) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Each of these is a technique for determining information about the internal structure of an object, such as the human body, from exterior … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Optics basics
6 Comments
New ‘cloaking’ results? Not really, but interesting anyway
About a week ago, I reported on another ‘teaser’ in the media about ‘optical cloaks’, hypothetical devices which would in principle make objects contained in their core completely invisible. Such devices have gotten a lot of attention, both scientifically and … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Physics
8 Comments
The cloaking craze: A look at the original papers
As I noted a couple of days ago, apparently there has been another significant experimental breakthrough in the development of dielectric cloaking devices. Researchers at UC Berkeley were responsible, though it is a little unclear what exactly the breakthrough is. … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Physics
11 Comments
Another ‘invisibility cloak’ teaser!
Via several sources (Times Online, via HuffPost and AP, via Pharyngula), I see that there’s another pending high-profile release concerning ‘invisibility cloaks’. Though the physics behind them is accurate, the media is of course pushing rather hyperbolic headlines again: “Science … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Science news
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Invisibility Physics: Schott’s radiationless orbits
Conventional wisdom, even to this day, dictates that accelerating charges necessarily give off electromagnetic radiation. This is seen, for instance, in large-scale particle accelerators (synchrotrons), such as the Tevatron at Fermilab and the soon-to-be-operational LHC at CERN: the charged particles … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Physics
2 Comments
Invisibility Physics: Acceleration without radiation, part I
A couple of years ago, a number of physicists made international news (some descriptions here and here) by proposing that “cloaking devices” were theoretically possible to construct. Two papers appeared consecutively in Science Magazine in May 2006, one by U. … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Physics
9 Comments
