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The article discusses research on cloaking devices that would render physical objects invisible by steering light around them. It mentions the history of invisibility in literature and science fiction. Pioneering researchers are said to include Ulf Leonhardt and Sir John Pendry who are credited with formulating the theory behind cloaking. Researchers noted for their endeavors to apply the theory to materials include Xiang Zhang, Vladimir Shalaev, and Michal Lipsan.

Up to the present, lenses have primarily served one purpose: to render the world more visible--to people, that is. Now, there are inanimate observers that can also benefit from lenses. More and more, computers are being tasked with making sense of the visual world in ways that people are unable to. With a new generation of optics, engineers are recasting visual scenes for computers' consumption. To the human eye, these pictures are visual gibberish, hardly worth a single word, let alone a thousand. To computers, such data can be worth more words than you would care to count. Central to it all are new styles of lenses. Instead of the familiar concave and convex disks, optical engineers are making oddly shaped, radically different lenses tailored to the strengths of computers.

The article looks at a report published on July 11, 2011 online at arXiv.org, by researchers including Moti Fridman of Cornell University, on temporal cloaking. Scientists were able to tear a temporary hole in a beam of light by using a time lens. Topics include the use of metamaterials, manipulation of light, and how the experiment was completed in a fiber-optic cable vacuum.

The article discusses research on and development of invisibility cloaks of larger than microscopic scale, as reported by independent research teams in the January 2011 issue of "Physical Review Letters" and the February 1, 2011 issue of "Nature Communications." Researchers George Barbastathis and Shuang Zhang are cited.

The article discusses research on metamaterials which have been investigated for use as invisibility cloaks and for use in researching the physics of different universes. This article focuses on scientist Igor Smolyaninov and his research on using metamaterials to manipulate light and engineer the properties of spacetime. Scientist Joseph Polchinski is cited regarding Smolyaninov's work.

Examines how solid-state physics may be able to explain laser speckle patterns. Mathematics of waves; Roles of waves in other fields; Role of properties of disordered solids; Idea that quantum mechanics can explain the effects seen in wave interference; Some benefits of multiple scattering; Practical applications for motion-detecting capabilities; View of physicist Ad Lagendijk, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on optics and solid-state predictions; Other research into condensed-matter physics.

The article discusses an invisibility cloak device made by Majid Gharghi of the University of California, Berkeley which bends visible light in order to make an object invisible to humans. Gharghi used a meta-material sheet of silicon nitride which was etched with holes in order to curve light away from two-dimensional bumps. A device made by Martin Wegener of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology can hide three-dimensional objects from red light.

The article discusses news in the field of matter and energy regarding the optically directed assembly of nanoscale filaments of gold and carbon particles by scientists at the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, to be published online in the February 28, 2011 issue of "Physical Review Letters."

The article discusses news in the field of matter and energy to be published in the February 14, 2011 issue of "Materials," regarding a metamaterial made from small metal rods and a nonconducting liquid and its prospective use in optical devices.

A response by author Laura Sanders to a letter to the editor about her article "Study Finds That Light Can Be Uplifting” in the January 1, 2011 issue is presented.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article “Study Finds That Light Can Be Uplifting,” by Laura Sanders in the January 1, 2011 issue.

The article discusses research reported online December 5, 2010 in "Nature Photonics" by scientist Grover Swartzlander and team on a force called optical lift generated by light.

The article discusses research reported in the September 13, 2010 issue of "Physical Review A" by scientist Alexander Zibrov and colleagues on a compass that measures the magnitude and direction of magnetic fields using rubidium atoms and light.

The editor introduces the issue with reference to the science of cloaking and a related article by Charles Petit. He discusses the metamorphosis of science fiction into reality based on scientific research, noting the visions of writers like Plato, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov. The editor notes the science that underlies cloaking including electricity, magnetism, and quantum physics.

The article discusses two separate papers regarding invisibility. One published online by "Nature" and one in the August 15, 2008 issue of "Science." Two materials that can bend light backwards suggest that an invisibility cloak, like the one used in the motion picture "Harry Potter," is feasible. Details related to how it would work and the materials used are presented.

The article describes a process used to enhance the clarity of an image that can be seen through a microscope. Microscopes have relied on technology that shines a violet light at a think silver plate with holes in it that illuminates the sample being viewed. Scientists have changed the process so that the light penetrates the surface from the rim of the holes rather than directly.

This article discusses research into bending light, research which harbors the possibility of invisibility. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have begun to study materials with the characteristic of negative refraction, and have achieved negative refraction for visible light over a spectrum of blue and green colors. Commentary from Henri Lezec, who is heading the research team at the institute, is included.

The article reports that computer animators have discovered a way to trace light rays through a realistic computer model of human hair, allowing them to automatically recreate the sheen of blond hair. The light refracts through and bounces off different areas of blond hair, illuminating both the individual strand and those surrounding it.

The article discusses a new X-ray imaging technique. Researchers have long known that phase-contrast X-ray imaging can yield stunning pictures of soft tissue. Imaging soft tissue in detail has required enormous particle accelerators that span several city blocks. A new method may soon bring this valuable diagnostic capability into hospital settings. There, researchers say, it will provide physicians with unprecedented power to spot tumors, clogged arteries, and other soft-tissue problems. "Phase-sensitive X-ray imaging can produce images that show much more detail in tissue structure, but none of the techniques could be used efficiently in a hospital-based setup with small X-ray sources," says Franz Pfeiffer of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. Now, his team reports an advance that it says will enable radiologists to perform phase-contrast imaging using conventional hospital X-ray machines. The team describes its innovation in the Aug. 8 Optics Express, an online journal.

The article reports that physicists in France have timed the tiny pause between the arrival of light at a reflective surface and its departure from that surface. Ever since Newton made the suggestion, theorists have been aware that incoming light slightly overshoots some surfaces before bouncing away, but no one could time that excursion, until now. "We all think of [reflection] as instantaneous, but it takes a little time," says Albert Le Floch of the University of Rennes 1, leader of the team that made the measurement. For light ricocheting inside a glass prism, the team found the delay to be either 28 millionths of a billionth of a second (femtosecond, fs) or 57 fs, depending on the pulse's polarization. Not all reflective surfaces cause delays--only those that light can penetrate a bit before reflecting, Le Floch says.

The article reports that materials scientists have fabricated a photonic crystal using a piece of a sea urchin's shell as a template. Someday, optical communications and high-speed computing might owe their success to the little ocean creature. For years, researchers have been searching for ways to make photonic crystals with just the right optical properties. These three-dimensional structures, consisting of arrays of microscopic pores arranged in a lattice, reject some wavelengths of light while letting others pass through. This enables the crystals to manipulate light with exquisite precision.

Presents a letter to the editor in response to the article "Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings," in the May 29, 2004 issue of "Science News."

Presents a letter to the editor in response to the article "Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings," in the May 29, 2004 issue of "Science News."

Presents a response to a letter to the editor of the August 14, 2004 issue of "Science News," which clarifies the groove-mapping process involved in extracting sound from old records.

Presents a letter to the editor in response to the article "Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings," in the May 29, 2004 issue of "Science News."

Discusses research being done on the use of black grease swiped under the eyes of baseball and football players to discern contrast against a sunlit background. Reference to a study by DeBroff et al, published in the July 2003 issue of 'Archives of Ophthalmology'; Alternatives to black grease tested.

Reports on the study reported in the July 28, 2000 'Science,' in which materials researchers describe their new process of making photonic crystals with perfect structure from the viewpoint of the optical properties. Description of the use photonic crystals to create microchips for light; Details of the ideal photonic crystal.

Reports on experiments to use light-based electric microcircuits. Development of light chips by Canadian and Spanish researchers, as published in the May 2000 issue of 'Nature'; Optical components such as laser cavities and optical transistors; Outlook for further research by Sajeev John.

Reports on inventors using records to focus X-rays. Use of LP-based lens to make X-rays converge in a mammography machine; Possibilities for other medical applications; X-ray optics for the layman; Research by Bjorn Cederstrom of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden; Innovation in the April 27, 2000 issue of 'Nature.'

Reports that researchers have improved on holography material so that it records holographic data encoded in light-interference patterns in less than one second. Efforts of Rolf H. Berg et al.; Findings published in the May 11, 1999 online version of the `Journal of the American Chemical Society.'

Reports that Seth R. Marder and his colleagues at the National Aeronautics and Space Admininstration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena have made organic materials that, in electric fields, develop the uneven distribution of charges needed for nonlinear optical (NLO) effects. Production of the organic salt DAST; Electro-optic switches; DAST's asymmetric polarity; More.

Reports that, in a feat of stretoscopic magic, two researchers have used a finely tuned laser to transform the optical properties of individual molecules, making them `disappear.' Possible implications for storing information; Work of physicist W.E. Moerner and his colleagues at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif.; `Hole burning'; More.

Describes a new optical switch controlled entirely by light which is much faster than electronic switches, according to researchers at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Optical circuitry; How the switch works; Outlook for an all-optical computer; Comment of Alan Huang.

The article discusses the scattering process of light found in milk and white paint, substances that affects the light's speed as well as its direction. A glass of milk presents a formidable obstacle course to a beam of light. Microscopic globules of fat and protein, evenly dispersed throughout the liquid, continually change the light beam's direction, forcing it to follow a zigzag path. This "scattering" is so efficient and effective for all colors of light that milk appears both opaque and white. Dutch physicists have now discovered that the scattering process is more complicated than researchers thought. The obstacles - whether globules in milk, water droplets in clouds, or tiny beads of pigment in white paint - not only change the light's direction but also significantly retard its speed. The researchers stumbled upon the effect while studying the scattering of light by concentrated white paint microscopic beads of the pigment titanium dioxide suspended in a liquid. While interpreting their data from different experiments, they found to their surprise that they always got contradictory results. The discovery that light slows down much more than expected when traveling through materials such as milk and white paint demonstrates that even a mature field of physics may yet harbor hidden treasures.

Reports on the completion of the development of the New Technology Telescope by the European Southern Observatory in Cerro La Silla, Chile. Utilization of active optics; Thickness of the mirror used; Capability of the telescope to see fainter stars.

Reports the installation of the astronomical telescope with active computer controlled optics in the European Southern Observatory at Cerro La Silla, Chile. Physical features of the telescope; Factors to consider in selecting the location to store the telescope; Description of the mechanical structure of the telescope.

Reports on the extension of the novel method for synthesizing a pair of mirror-image molecules. Use of the method with nitrogen-containing compounds; Way to replace the boron atom.