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Scientist Designs Nanoparticle Optics That Self-Assemble
Posted by Kit Eaton at 12:10 AM on November 6, 2008
Nanoparticles that self-assemble into complex optical structures sounds like an early ingredient in a future Robot Uprising recipe, but the science team at University of California, Berkeley thinks they'll be useful for nicely tame things. The self-assembly of the nanoparticle silver crystals can be controlled to produce different nano "devices" and it's a a neat way of putting together nanotech that is more typically produced top-down by lithography. The devices can be as diverse as colour-changing paint, optical computer elements, and ultrasensitive chemical sensors.
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with this freaky adaptive liquid-lens that can capture 250 in-focus images per second. It's essentially droplets of water in a pair, trapped in a chamber and driven by a high-frequency sound wave to oscillate.
Yes, 
Ah, where would science be if not for the contributions of the humble microscope? Did you know that the development of the world's first microscope began in 11th century Iraq, when scientist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham recorded all sorts of data about lenses, binocular vision, mirrors and observable properties of light his The Book of Optics? That would make this pioneering technology more than a thousand years old. BibliOdyssey has amassed a great collection of drawings of pre-20th century microscopes and some of them look more like art pieces than instruments of science. Check out my favourites: [
Traditional camera lenses have to have beefier optics to make up for the fact that the sensor is flat--but one reason why 
There's been a bit of a rush of 
Optics junkies at the University of Michigan have found a way to greatly boost the efficiency of OLEDs to produce 60% more light from the same amount of power as those previous, cranking out 70 lumens per watt. Their method uses a layer of five-micrometer-wide lenses mounted on top of a reflective grid, which coaxes the light out from the organic substrate and into the world. OLEDs to date have been held back by efficiency problems--they still can't match CFL bulbs' 90 lumens per watt, but they're getting there. This could mean lighting that adds even less power consumption to OLED's many benefits over compact fluorescents (longer life, better light, theoretical 100% efficiency, etc), and more energy-sipping OLED TV panels down the road. [
MIT's Tech Review 
OK, so it's not quite as sensational as it sounds— UK scientists have been trying to simulate conditions near the event horizons that shroud black holes, and they've cleverly simulated a horizon using pulses of light in a special optical fibre. So, no disastrous gravity well was made and the world didn't suddenly end with a horrible crunch. But they did create an analogue of a black hole that helped them understand some of the weird and whacky physics that goes on near real ones.
