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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
Optics basics: Polarization
In a previous ‘basics’ post, I discussed the three major branches of optical science. My specialty, physical optics, involves the study of the wave properties of light. In particular, there are three major phenomena in physical optics: interference, diffraction, and … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Optics basics
13 Comments
“Aether Drag” and Moving Images: A different sort of “twin paradox”
Note: I’ve bumped this post in a probably futile attempt to get it aggregated by Research Blogging. It’s a little challenging to blog about contemporary optics research, as much of the work being done, though interesting, is of an extremely … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
15 Comments
Measuring neural activity using surface plasmons
In the May 1st issue of Optics Letters, a Korean research group has demonstrated another interesting application of surface plasmon resonances: the optical measurement of neural activity. Though I’m not sure how useful this technique will be in the long … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
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Classic Science Paper: Otto Wiener’s experiment (1890)
Update: In my haste to finish this “monster” post, I neglected to include an introduction to standing waves, an explanation which is crucial to understanding the experiment. That oversight has been corrected. A couple of weeks ago I issued a … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics, Physics
19 Comments
New theoretical results in the study of extraordinary optical transmission
Right after “challenging” my fellow science bloggers to find and write about an old scientific paper, I take a hypocritical turn and write about some recent results in the theory of extraordinary optical transmission! In a paper that came out … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
10 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
17 Comments
Making anamorphic images, part 1: Piecewise images
In my recent post on the camera obscura, I discussed the optical illusion produced by so-called anamorphic images, i.e. images which only appear normal from a particular point of view. One can readily understand such images from the point of … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
8 Comments
Relativity: Measuring the speed of light
When I was an undergraduate, one of my professors told the following funny (and probably apocryphal) anecdote (recalled from memory): A court case was being tried in New Mexico. A group of pornographers were charged with smuggling pornography from Mexico … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics, Relativity
20 Comments
Making optical ‘black holes’ in a laboratory?
My attention was recently drawn to this article (h/t Personal Demon and StumbleUpon) in Scientific American: a group of researchers have concocted a relatively simple way to generate an ‘event horizon’ in an optical fiber, analogous to those found in … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
3 Comments
The Camera Obscura and a neat optical illusion
I thought I’d muscle in on Swans on Tea’s turf for a post and discuss an interesting optical illusion that is based just as much on optics as on the idiosyncrasies of the eye itself. While stumbling through StumbleUpon.com, I … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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