Optics

'Tis the season for nanometer-scale Christmas trees. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison stumbled onto these pine tree structures by accident as they were trying to shape lead sulfide into slender wires measuring about 100 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter) in thickness.

Researchers hope to detect faint radiation emanating from a new laboratory version of a black hole event horizon

The world's first reusable 3-D screen debuts, thanks to new photorefractive film that can be written on and erased again and again

Researchers discover a way to briefly store data acoustically to alleviate traffic bottlenecks

New technologies exercise extraordinary control over light

Eyestrain is a common—and occasionally debilitating—effect of staring at screens

Archaeologists and physicists worked together to uncover historical information on an ancient wine vessel. Cynthia Graber reports.

New method pings photons without destroying their quantum state

Why does pumpkin seed oil appear red in a bottle but green on a plate?

Red bar-code and DVD lasers may get multicolored company thanks to new ultramicroscopic crystals