Scientists Create Light Knots
source: http://www.livescience.com/technology/tying-light-knots-100117.html
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- DeliaTheArtist
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The twisted feat not only led to some pretty cool images, but the results have implications for future laser devices, the researchers say.
"In a light beam, the flow of light through space is similar to water flowing in a river," said lead researcher Mark Dennis of the University of Bristol in England. Even though the light from something like a laser pointer travels in a straight line, it can also flow in whirls and eddies, Dennis explained.
"For me, it shows how physicists can adapt existing pure mathematics, such as knot theory, and find it manifest in physical phenomena," Dennis said. "It also shows how finely we can control the flow and propagation of laser light using holograms. This degree of control is likely to find applications in future laser devices."
http://www.livescience.com/technology/tying-light-knots-100117.html
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metaloki
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I'm thinking it will likely find applications in "Invisible armor" as well as "3D Home Entertainment" or maybe "Optic Bionics" for the blind! .............Cool, thanks DTA!
- 2 years ago
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metaloki
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royulery
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when i took mineral optics, i was mindblown by the unexpected nature of light. maybe it is the nature of our brains ( that we think along linear pathways) that keeps us from multi-dimensional thinking. newton may have proven light not to be spiritual but it's behaviors defy the mind purchase.
- 2 years ago
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royulery
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jubal
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royulery:
What a most intriguing comment, perhaps thinking in multi dimensional ways allows the being to expand their consciousness.
- 2 years ago
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jubal
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royulery:
"There is no spoon"
- 2 years ago
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Here's something else, as well
http://current.com/items/91939864_physicists-develop-3d-metamaterial-nanolens-th... - 2 years ago
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coleslaw
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i ment, no more shadows lol. ha.
- 2 years ago
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coleslaw
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coleslaw
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hmm.. light bends now, now more shadows :[
- 2 years ago
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coleslaw
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Xenzaka
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Cool, looks like polio.
- 2 years ago
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Xenzaka
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unimatrix0
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I always find it hard to get my mind around the idea that light can bend - I guess in some ways I am very linear.
- 2 years ago
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unimatrix0
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unimatrix0:
Just think of space as jello. You can reach in and grab it with both hands and twist it, push it, pull it.
- 2 years ago
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calm_incense
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Awesome. You want to rejuvenate America? You can start by getting its general public interested in science again.
- 2 years ago
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calm_incense
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jubal
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We inch ever closer to Star Trek holodecks.
- 2 years ago
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jubal
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ahappymintleaf
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It says it made cool images. Want see! Especially if that's all that can come directly from the experiment.
- 2 years ago
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ahappymintleaf
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Ari_Liston
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what real life applications could this have? i'd be interested in knowing
- 2 years ago
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Ari_Liston
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DeliaTheArtist
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Ari_Liston:
I think most of the real life applications aren't within the knots themselves, but the ability to turn theory into physical reality and the amount of control we can have over these technologies.
- 2 years ago
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DeliaTheArtist
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Ari_Liston:
Well, I designed a purely liquid crystal vapor screen system where white light was to be angled through energized spheres for a pure electronic color spectrum - and a super high resolution.
A grid that could dynamically channel white light into such a suspended vapor, or simply dynamically alter direction - could be very useful.You could set that little curly-que flower into a resonate or vibrating state and make all kinds of things happen. Communications switching. Of course, you'd have to create new methods of light-channeling. I would think to create little buckyball and other atom cages - different shapes from Spheriods. You might make a charge induced system to grow what would look like an atomic sponge, that would channel light - for super computers and communications systems.
It also appears to have 6:1 ratio delay - which would be different with different states. Series of parallel light delays could be very useful. All of this, of course sits inside flux donuts that force the given situation and therefore to which rather involved structural elements must integrate.
- 2 years ago
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Varex_Sythe
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I wonder what kind of applications this might have.
- 2 years ago
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Varex_Sythe
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Where did that graphic come from? Thank you.
- 2 years ago
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DeliaTheArtist
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Livescience.
- 2 years ago
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DeliaTheArtist
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I didn't display on their article. It was just text - so I thought it must have come from somewhere. It shows a boundary disk with red and then purple, appearing as through the disk.
So since even thinking about what is presented if it is simply an added 'artsy' graphic. - 2 years ago
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DeliaTheArtist
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This link should bring you to an image and explanation: http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=technol...
And this one too: http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=technol...
I'm not sure to what extent they are "artistic interpretations" of what the scientists did...
- 2 years ago
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DeliaTheArtist
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keviar
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According to the article.
"Then, the team scanned a camera through the laser field to get images of the knots. (A computer program applied before the team had created the hologram essentially made the field around the dark knot appear bright.) "
- 2 years ago
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keviar
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They seem to have mis-drawn the last one. If you place quadrants, the lower left loop comes forward and up over the descending right top loop, then should go behind the disk to hook under the center-right knot. It remains green, which is a 'what's wrong with this picture' alarm. It does seem to go slightly out of focus for us.
Maybe it just appears strange when the color goes blue right there, so they made it green. Or I guess the 'disk' is a quadrant manifold, the knot following surfaces? -The vertical is back, the horizontal, forward.
The link doesn't show but one picture on my computy.
- 2 years ago
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