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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a 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. -
Category Archives: Optics
Michelson and the President (1869)
I’m currently working my way through the book The Master of Light: a Biography of Albert A. Michelson (1973), written by one of his daughters, Dorothy Michelson Livingston. I typically find the beginnings of biographies to be rather slow-moving, with … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
7 Comments
Wave interference: where does the energy go?
Last week was a relatively lousy one for me, but it was made up in part by getting a good question from a student on waves and interference after class. It’s really nice to get a question that indicates a … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
33 Comments
My talk on “Forgotten milestones in the history of optics”
I just got finished giving a talk to the graduate students of my department on “Forgotten milestones in the history of optics”. The talk seemed to be very well-received, and I’ve already had faculty suggesting that I should give it … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
15 Comments
A new optics blog: Internal Reflections
There’s a new optics-related blog out there! A friend and colleague sent me notice that the company he works for, ASE Optics, has started its own blog, called Internal Reflections. Quoting their “about” page, This blog is a place to … Continue reading
Rolling out the (optical) carpet: the Talbot effect
One of the wonderful things about having a career in science is that a deeper understanding of the science leads to a greater appreciation of its beauty. In physics, this usually requires a nontrivial amount of mathematics, but there are … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
31 Comments
Announcing: Mathematical Methods for Optical Physics and Engineering!
I’ve mumbled various random things in the past about my upcoming textbook project; this week, I finally got approval from the publisher to start hyping it on the blog. (Actually, they never prohibited it, but I just got around to … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Personal, Physics
18 Comments
Kepler’s contributions to optics, at Renaissance Mathematicus
Those who follow this site for optics and history of science posts should take at look at this nice post by The Renaissance Mathematicus. It covers the contributions of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) to the modern theory of optics. Kepler is … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
1 Comment
Reversing optical “shockwaves” using metamaterials (updated)
In a recent issue of Physical Review Letters was an article with the intriguing (to me) title of “Experimental verification of reversed Cherenkov radiation in left-handed metamaterial,” by a collaboration from Zhejiang University in China and MIT. The paper is … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
7 Comments
Boo! The optics behind “ghost” imaging
Halloween seemed like the perfect time to talk about an unconventional sort of optical imaging, referred to as “ghost” imaging. I should point out at the beginning, however, that I’m not talking about this sort of ghost imaging: Don’t get … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
2 Comments
Frontiers in Optics: T,W,Th
One of the things that happens to me as the years go by is that I spend less time at meetings listening to talks and more time talking to friends and colleagues and planning new research collaborations. From discussions with … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Science news
4 Comments
