Imagine shining a flashlight into a material and watching the light bend backward—or in an entirely unexpected direction—as ...

Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to structure light in custom, repeatable, three-dimensional patterns, ...

A team of scientists has replicated one of Thomas Edison's early experiments from his quest to make the lightbulb, but with ...

Rice University researchers recreated Edison's 1879 light bulb and found evidence it may have produced graphene by accident.

When a full moon peeks just above the horizon, it appears enormous. This is a curious phenomenon, as when it is at this ...

I test a series of light experiments to explore reflection, refraction, and optical illusions, demonstrating how light behaves in surprising and educational ways. This is what scientists discovered in ...

New experiments at CERN by an international team have ruled out a potential source of intergalactic magnetic fields. The existence of such fields is invoked to explain why we do not observe secondary ...

TL;DR: This experiment may not revolutionize telecommunications, but it highlights how accessible these concepts have become outside traditional research labs. Using nothing more than an iPad, a solar ...

Daniel Urban teaches ciLiving host, Jaclyn Friedlander how bees can see polarized light Did you know bees can see something humans can't? In this experiment, we explore how bees detect polarized light ...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — The Discovery Center Museum is offering an engaging experiment to help children understand the science of light refraction and color mixing as they head back to school. The ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...