-
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
Optical rogue waves at American Scientist!
Been quite busy lately, but I wrote a blog post on recent research on rogue waves, the rare killers of the sea, at American Scientist, which appeared this week! A snippet: Until these discoveries, such rogues were thought to be … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
Leave a comment
My Google Hangout Seminar on Invisibility Physics!
In lieu of more substantial writing on the blog, here’s a link to another presentation I gave! I was invited to give a Google Hangout Seminar at the University of Central Arkansas on “How Not to be Seen: The History … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Personal
Leave a comment
Infinite hotels in swirling beams of light
I’ve noticed there seems to be a general unspoken rule about the relationship between mathematics and science: any mathematics, no matter how abstract or seemingly disconnected from reality, eventually finds use or representation in the natural world. For example, most … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics, Optics
12 Comments
#365 papers, part 4!
I’ve joined a group of folks on Twitter who have vowed to read roughly a paper a day for an entire year, and will summarize my reading here occasionally. Part 1 can be read here, part 2 can be read … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
Leave a comment
#365papers, part 3!
I’ve joined a group of folks on Twitter who have vowed to read roughly a paper a day for an entire year, and will summarize my reading here occasionally. Part 1 can be read here, and part 2 can be … Continue reading
Dr. SkySkull and the mystery of the subluminal superluminal light!
References in a scientific paper are supposed to answer questions, not raise them, but sometimes they inadvertently create a minor mystery for the reader. A few weeks back, I blogged about the curious phenomenon of subluminal vacuum beams of light, … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Optics
5 Comments
#365 papers, part 2!
I’ve joined a group of folks on Twitter who have vowed to read roughly a paper a day, and will summarize my reading here occasionally. Part 1 can be read here. Links are provided for those with university access who … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Personal
Leave a comment
So what’s up with that “slower than light” light?
Over the years, there has been a lot of hype about the possibility of “superluminal” light: namely, light than can travel faster than the vacuum speed of light meters/second, which is overwhelmingly considered the absolute speed limit of the universe. I’ve talked … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
4 Comments
Null-field radiationless sources: even more invisible than invisible?
I spend a lot of time talking about invisibility on this blog, as it is a subject near and dear to me: I did my PhD work, completed in 2001, on early historical forms of invisibility. I like to tell … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics
1 Comment
Nobel Prize roundup: It’s all about the optics!
This week, the Nobel Prizes for Physics and Chemistry were announced, and it was a photonics two-fer! The physics prize went to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Science news
Leave a comment
Skulls in the Stars 