Social media is not only a way for authors and publishers to disseminate research findings, it’s also increasingly being used by researchers to discover and read scientific content. Read more
Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. We asked staff from across Nature Research who has inspired them. Read more
This week we conclude our series of ‘beautiful experiments with light’ featured in our poll and finally reach the new millennium in which lasers continue to enable powerful and diverse experiments. Read more
The experiments in this week ’s blog entry accompanying our poll of ‘ the most beautiful experiment with light’ were carried out in the second half of the twentieth century, in which physicists were still struggling to accept the counter-intuitive implications of quantum physics. Read more
We kick off this week’s experiments for our poll with the discovery of a special kind of light: cosmic microwave background. The story of this discovery is a beautiful example of the fortuity of scientific discovery. Read more
This week’s set of experiments featured in our poll are all about the advent of the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and the optical maser, now known as the laser, and the remarkable wide impact these inventions had in science, technology and society. Read more
In last week’s post you heard about beautiful experiments with light featured in our poll from the turn of the century. This week, we will talk about the time until the 1950s. And, while so many turning points in politics and history fall into that period, advances in optics and photonics were a bit betwixt and between. Scientists were modernizing their methods and instruments but still didn’t have modern-day tools like the laser, which in the 1960s would completely transform light-related research. Read more
This week’s entries for the poll of the most beautiful experiments with light occurred around the turn of the 19th century. Read more
For this week’s set of experiments in our poll we will stick to the 19th century. Our first entry is from 1839, when Alexandre Edmond Becquerel invented the photovoltaic cell at the tender age of 19. While playing around in his father’s lab, Becquerel created an electrolytic cell from silver chloride in acid. After connecting it to platinum electrodes, he found that exposing it to light generated an electrical current. Currently, photovoltaics is one of the most active themes in materials research, as it may be key in our challenge to produce enough clean energy for the world for generations ahead. Read more
The next couple of experiments with light listed in our ‘beautiful experiments’ poll come from, well, the age of enlightenment. Read more
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