Optics

The platform could aid climate science, space junk cleanup and planetary exploration

Economic inequality, an indulgent trip to space and an ongoing legal battle with NASA are putting the space company in the hot seat

A battle for the future of American stargazing is about to begin—and the stakes are sky high

Some astronomers argue the space agency’s next flagship observatory will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence

Yves Meyer wins the Abel Prize for development of a theory with applications ranging from watching movies to detecting gravitational waves

Reported in Scientific American, this Week in World War I: December 2, 1916

The enhanced ultrafast camera is three billion times faster than the one on an iPhone, the researchers say

Researchers examine why and when we unconsciously mirror another person's pupil size when we lock eyes

We signal our intention to speak or pause for a reply by where we direct our eyes

The real question is, why don’t humans have one, too?

Dozens of labs are investigating the internet phenomenon and developing new explanations

This week the first wave of research from scientific journals has begun to be published; Current Biology has posted a trio of papers by three different prominent competing color vision labs, each describing their initial studies of The Dress. So in celebration of the scientific enterprise and its surprise boost from the world of fashion: here is a summary of those first three studies for reading pleasure.