Zoe Kleinmann and a student make a pattern of light with translucent cups. Zoe Kleinmann and a student explore patterns. First they create units of two connected plastic cubes to create an AB pattern.

I learned in October 2022’s Breakthrough that the spikes of stars in high-power photos are called diffraction spikes. Why do they appear as two crosses at 45 degrees to each other? The diffraction ...

Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to structure light in custom, repeatable, three-dimensional patterns, ...

Researchers describe a new platform for controlling the chaotic behavior of light by tailoring its scattering patterns using light itself. Harnessing and controlling light is vital for the development ...

In late winter, the zodiacal light is visible in the evening in the Northern Hemisphere (false dusk) and in the pre-dawn morning in the Southern Hemisphere (false dawn). In early autumn, the timing ...