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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
Making light follow a curve (updated)
I was sent a link today to an interesting article about some research done at the University of Central Florida. Researchers have concocted a class of optical beams which appear to follow a curved trajectory in free space propagation. A … Continue reading
Optics basics: What is a wave? Part II: Interference
In the first part of my series on ‘What is a wave?’, I attempted to give a broad definition of a wave, so that we can identify them when we see them. In this part, I will address two of … Continue reading
Optics basics: What is a wave? Part I (updated)
As I’ve mentioned a number of times before, my optics specialty is physical optics, which is the study of the wave properties of light. In order to understand those wave properties, however, it is important to understand what a ‘wave’ … Continue reading
Optics basics: The three major branches of optical science
Since this is supposed to be in large part a science-focused blog, I wanted to get started with some serious posts about scientific topics. Like most of the established science bloggers, I’ll be mixing up posts which are on basic … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Optics basics
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