SOFIA airborne observatory begins 2015 science campaign

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, Program began its third season of science flights on Jan. 13, 2015. SOFIA is NASA's next generation flying observatory and is fitted with a 2.5-meter (100-inch) ...

Organic photodiodes for sensor applications

Powerful, inexpensive and even flexible when they need to be, organic photodiodes are a promising alternative to silicon-based photodetectors. They are used to improve light sensitivity in cameras and to check displays for ...

Making plants' inner qualities visible

A photographic airplane circles above an Australian vineyard in large arcs. An onboard camera takes pictures of the grapevines in regular intervals – anything but ordinary photos, though. Instead, this camera "looks" directly ...

A new light wave

Hold a magnifying glass over the driveway on a sunny day and it will focus sunlight into a single beam. Hold a prism in front of the window and the light will spread out into a perfect rainbow. Lenses like these have been ...

Team makes breakthrough in solar energy research

The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics (PV) —- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells —- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to ...

Laser guided codes advance single pixel terahertz imaging

The universe is awash in terahertz (THz) waves, as harmless as they are abundant. But unlike other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, THz has proven to be extremely difficult to manipulate in order to capture novel ...

Simple wavelength detector could speed data communications

(Phys.org) —Researchers at SLAC and Stanford have created a new device, smaller than a grain of rice, that could streamline optical data communications. It can directly identify the wavelength of light that hits it, and ...

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