Evolution in black and white. The polarization pattern of the light reflected by a zebra’s coat looks very unattractive to bloodsucking horseflies, who are strongly polarotactic.

Volume 17 Story 2 - 2/5/2012

Baffle the Bug!

Puzzled by the zebra’s appearance? Experimental data of recent research supports the idea that zebras developed their striped coat to stave off horseflies.
Artistic representation of an X-ray laser. X-rays interact with the electrons of the atom, which leads to the emission of another X-ray photon.

Volume 17 Story 1 - 16/4/2012

Towards Better X-ray Lasers

Red, green and blue lasers play a key role in everyday life. X-ray lasers are still in their infancy. Building on the principles of visible-light lasers, however, it is possible to produce better X-rays.
The unsteady world of a Brownian particle. For a microscopic particle, life is quite an adventure. Molecules come and go from its surface incessantly and its charge continues changing. Measuring these charging and discharging events is quite a challenge, which has now been met.

Volume 16 Story 10 - 14/3/2012

Charge Goes Up, Charge Comes Down

What a wonderful world it is when looked at from the perspective of a microscopic particle! All at once, a whole lot of small things take on new importance – not least so, the behavior of the electric charges around the particle.