Well, OK, not exactly. A beam of light could pass through air all day long (as long as you have a layer of air 26 billion kilometers long) and not deviate a whit. But if the density of that air ...

IN preparing an elementary lecture on Light, intended to be given at the Taunton College School, I have had to consider how best to explain the somewhat abstruse principle of optical refraction. It is ...

When people look into a mirror, they see an image of themselves behind the glass. That image results from light rays encountering the shiny surface and bouncing back, or reflecting, providing a ...

Scientists have demonstrated that negative refraction can be achieved using atomic arrays -- without the need for artificially manufactured metamaterials. Scientists have long sought to control light ...

Scientists have created a new class of laser beam that appears to violate long-held laws of light physics. These new beams, which the team calls “spacetime wave packets,” follow different rules of ...