Researchers at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have developed a new approach to nanoscale 3D printing ...

The nonrepeating Smith hat tile created twisting, pinwheel-like light patterns that ordinary quasicrystals do not produce. Its unusual effect comes from combining long-range order with a lack of ...

I learned in October 2022’s Breakthrough that the spikes of stars in high-power photos are called diffraction spikes. Why do they appear as two crosses at 45 degrees to each other? The diffraction ...

Scientists at the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) at the University of Tokyo in ...

What happens when a wave passes through some opening? It diffracts - or you like, you could say "bends". If the size of the opening is comparable to the wavelength of the wave, the bending can be ...

Today, astronomers seek to observe the faintest and most distant objects possible. Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), with apertures in the order of several dozen meters, are the next generation ...

One of the coolest things about physics is that the same basic concept can pop up in several seemingly unrelated things: say, a CD, the seed shrimp’s antennae, certain fossils in the Burgess shale, ...

Diffraction occurs when a wave encounters an obstruction in its path and will change direction, or wrap around it. In ocean waves, we see this occur when a wave encounters an object like a jetty and ...

Single-crystal diffraction was invented 100 years ago by Max von Laue. It has since become a workhorse technique for chemists to determine the structures of organometallic complexes and other ...

X-ray techniques have been used for decades by authorities to prevent crime and keep people safe. Perhaps their most well-known use is for the detection of dangerous and banned items or substances, ...