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Video

Slow motion footage reveals why insects are attracted to lights

To find out why insects gather around artificial lights, researchers filmed insects with a high-speed camera and used motion capture in an enclosure to trace their precise movements

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A butterfly flies near to a light at night

Technology

Incandescent lamp could save energy by recycling infrared light

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Physics

Light interacts with its past self in twist on double-slit experiment

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Caption Illustration of the double-slit experiment, showing a plane wave (top left) passing through a screen with two gaps. The gaps act as new wave sources and the wavefronts bend to create two sets of circular waves radiating outwards. These two new waves create an interference pattern as they interact. At the point where a wave peak from one hits a wave peak from another, or a trough hits a trough, they reinforce each other; their magnitudes are summed. This is known as constructive interference. Where a trough hits a peak, they cancel each other out. This is known as destructive interference.
crustacean larvae

Life

Prawn larvae conceal their eyes with reflectors to hide from predators

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Yi Zhang with the optical computer

Technology

Light-based computer could outpace traditional electrical chip designs

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Invisibility cloak

Technology

AI-designed invisibility cloak could hide small communication devices

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Exposure to high levels of light at night may be linked to certain mental health conditions

Health

Light exposure may be linked to several mental health conditions

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Neutron stars

Space

Jet from neutron stars seems to travel seven times the speed of light

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A sleeping man and woman in bed

Health

Some doses of blue light from screens may not affect your sleep

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Technology

Anti-laser can make any object suck in light

A maze of mirrors and lenses turns any material into a highly efficient light absorber and could be used for detection of faint light or charging distant devices with light

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A beam of red light shines through a series of four lenses within a telescope-like device

Physics

Whirlpools made of light can be twisted into the shape of a doughnut

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Physics

Secret images hidden in mirrors and windows using liquid crystals

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Physics

A gas made from light becomes easier to compress as you squash it

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Life

How the shimmering secrets of iridescence could keep us cool

Features

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