Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
- Animals
Birds of paradise have a newly discovered glow
Many male birds of paradise have bellies, bills and other parts that glow under certain types of light. This special gleam may help them woo mates.
- Physics
This device creates rainbows of sound
A plastic structure separates the pitches in mixed sounds like white noise, much like a rainbow spreads out colors of light.
- Physics
How polarized and UV-blocking sunglasses protect our eyes
Their filters can cut glare to help us see more clearly. The best ones also filter out the sun’s UV rays — even on cloudy days — to limit eye damage.
- Physics
Much of the sun’s light is green. Why does it look yellow?
Sunlight's peak intensity is at a green wavelength. Here’s why it doesn’t appear that way to us.
- Physics
Physics finally explains the sound of clapping
The “Helmholtz resonator” concept is responsible for the sound produced by hand-clapping.
- Microbes
Living lenses? Glass-coated microbes might take better photos
Bacteria with a gene from sea sponges can coat themselves in glass. Working as tiny, bendable lenses, they could lead to thinner cameras or sensors.
- Materials Science
Orange food dye can temporarily turn skin transparent
When mixed with water and rubbed on the skin, a common food dye allows researchers to peer inside the body of a mouse.
- Computing
A new frontier awaits — computing with light
Today’s computers process using electrical signals. But light shows promise as a new means of computing, especially for AI.
- Earth
Thunderstorms churn up a ‘boiling pot’ of high-energy gamma rays
A thunderstorm seen in gamma ray vision plays out as a complex, frenzied lightshow above the clouds.
- Earth
Analyze This: Why do atmospheric ‘ghosts’ glow green after red sprites?
Green ghosts — blurs of light that sometimes follow lightning — get their color from oxygen and metals in space dust.
- Space
Here’s how to build an internet on Mars
Future Red Planet residents will need to get online to talk to each other and Earth. But that will require a lot of new tech.
- Animals
Elusive worm-lizards sport weird, spooky skulls
CT scans of these mysterious creatures turned up bizarre internal features. They could offer clues about amphisbaenians’ largely unknown behavior.
