The Expanding Aperture Segmented Telescope will greatly extend China's optical astronomy capability. (Image: Peking University)
The new instrument is intended to narrow the current gap in optical astronomy capability between China and the rest of the world
Laser guide star for tracking space junk, developed by Electro Optic Systems together with the Australian National University. Credit: Electro Optic Systems
Benjamin Skuse explores photonics-based efforts to track, and possibly even remove, debris from the very crowded region of near-Earth space
Keely Portway looks at how adaptive optics have allowed ground-based telescopes to observe new phenomena, including finer details of the Sun
Shaping light wavefronts is improving many areas of microscopy – and is enabling Nobel Prize winner Eric Betzig’s most important work yet, finds Andy Extance
A Harvard Research team led by Nobel laureate Eric Betzig has developed a microscope that combines lattice light-sheet microscopy with adaptive optics to capture 3D images and videos of cells inside living organisms in high resolution
The stringent requirements for ground and space-based telescopes are driving the development of innovative materials and optical systems, Matthew Dale reports
An adaptive optics system, which has been more than a decade in the making, has seen first light as part of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope on the Cerro Paranal mountain in Chile
The European Extremely Large Telescope project is well underway, and is stretching the capabilities of the optical industry, as Matthew Dale discovers
Georgia State University's Centre for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) and the French company Alpao have signed a contract for the development of an adaptive optics upgrade for the CHARA Array, the largest optical interferometer array in the world
Rachel Berkowitz looks at the photonics technology being developed for probing the universe, which in turn is leading to better commercial products
Organoid imaged with Andor’s desktop confocal microscope system, the BC43. Credit: Andor
As microscopes become ever more powerful, a growing band of businesses are racing to make the latest technologies more accessible and more affordable, reports Rebecca Pool
Illustration of a three-dimensional crystal with various types of confining centres. (a) Crystal with four confining centres, each trapping waves (yellow) in all three dimensions simultaneously. (b) Crystal with a linear confining centre where waves can propagate in one dimension, analogous to an optical fibre. (c) Crystal with a planar confining centre where waves can propagate in two dimensions, analogous to a 2D electron gas. (Image: Vos et al.)
Newly discovered fundamental rules have been embedded into software to dramatically optimise the design of photonic integrated circuits
