University of Illinois Physics Professor Paul Kwiat and members of his research group have developed a new tool for precision measurement at the nanometer scale in scenarios where background noise and ...

Light is well known to exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties, as imaged here in this 2015 photograph. What's less well appreciated is that matter particles also exhibit those wave-like ...

Scientists have used a new method to determine the characteristics of optical, i.e. light-based, quantum states. For the first time, they are using certain photon detectors -- devices that can detect ...

In 1964, physicist John Bell formulated what became known as Bell's Theorem, showing that if quantum mechanics is correct, ...

A career in optical physics or engineering means knowing about the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and its detection by instruments. Since the discovery that ...

In a stunning leap for quantum optics, scientists have generated ultrafast light pulses whose quantum uncertainty can be ...

Researchers have for the first time measured the true properties of individual MXene flakes—an exciting new nanomaterial with ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. A week or so ago, I got a question on Facebook that was relayed from ...

Ether (or aether) is a term used in ancient mythology and medieval science to denote the matter that fills in the void of the universe. In the 19th century, physicists borrowed the concept to depict a ...

Modern computing banks on conventional electronics and algorithms to process data. But because the hardware operates according to the laws of physics, data processing has a physical speed limit. The ...