Understand the physics behind total internal reflection and why light can become completely trapped inside a medium. This video explains the conditions required for total internal reflection, the role ...

Light can be sculpted into countless shapes. Yet building optical devices that can simultaneously manipulate many different ...

A week or so ago, I got a question on Facebook that was relayed from one of the kids of a college friend, which I'll paraphrase as "What's the physics explanation of what gives objects their color?" ...

The 2023 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists who created pulses of light so short they can be used to watch the inner workings of atoms. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and ...

In 1845, physicist Michael Faraday provided the first direct evidence that electromagnetism and light are related. Now, it turns out that this connection is even stronger than Faraday imagined. In his ...

A twist in the universe's first light could hint that scientists need to rethink physics. A pair of Japanese scientists looked at the polarization or orientation of light from the cosmic microwave ...

While the terms "quantum physics" and "Theory of Relativity" are used casually every day, not many people know what they really mean. Yet these theories have had a profound impact not only on science ...

Quantum physics is arguably the greatest intellectual triumph in the history of human civilization, but to most people it seems like it's too remote and abstract to matter. This is largely a ...

Scientists have created a new class of laser beam that appears to violate long-held laws of light physics. These new beams, which the team calls “spacetime wave packets,” follow different rules of ...

In a major breakthrough, scientists have observed a strange and previously theoretical form of light — known as negative light. This marks the first time in human history that such a phenomenon has ...

The speed of light is a fundamental constant, approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. It's the same for all observers and hasn't changed measurably over billions of years. Nothing can travel ...