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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
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
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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
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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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Light breaking its own speed limit: how ‘superluminal’ shenanigans work
In a previous optics basics post, we discussed challenges associated with trying to define the velocity of a localized wave or ‘pulse’ of light. Traditional measurements of the velocity of an object involve measuring how far Δd an object travels … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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Scientists make ‘blackest’ material ever!
This was an interesting bit of science news from last week: according to an article on optics.org (free registration required), a research team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University has fabricated the ‘blackest’ material ever known, which reflects just … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
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Long-range optical communication… how much would you pay?
There’s a lot of interest in both industry and the military in developing free-space optical communications systems. The basic idea is to use a laser to transmit signals at optical frequencies over distances ranging from a few kilometers to hundreds … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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Some random tips on scientific public speaking
I’m currently in San Jose, at Photonics West, the biggest optics meeting of the SPIE (Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, originally.) I’m only here briefly, and pretty burned out on meetings for the moment. I did see some nice talks … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
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Optics basics: Defining the velocity of a wave
How do we define how fast a wave is going? The question at first glance seems obvious. When we discussed harmonic waves in a previous post, we observed that the velocity of the wave could be measured by measuring how … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Optics basics
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Optics basics: What is a wave? Part IV: Important quantities
To conclude my discussion of optics basics, I want to introduce some of the standard quantities used to describe waves and wave propagation. Unlike previous ‘basics’ posts, this one will necessarily deal with a little bit of algebra and perhaps … Continue reading
Optics basics: What is a wave? Part III: Diffraction
In part II of my series on ‘What is a wave?’, I addressed one of the two most significant behaviors of waves, namely interference, the ability of a wave to ‘interact’ with itself. The second behavior of waves which is … Continue reading
