A terahertz tunable laser. In this artistic representation, the laser is the yellow wire, which is mounted on the grey support block. The electromagnetic field inside the laser reaches beyond the transversal dimensions of the wire, which makes it possible to influence the lasing frequency by moving objects close to the wire.

Volume 8 Story 3 - 9/2/2010

A New Instrument for the Laser Orchestra

Laser physics and music share surprising analogies: lasers and flutes, for example, have been tuned in a very similar way until now. Recent experiments show that lasers can also be tuned in a way that does not find a counterpart in music, well not yet at least.
A photo-acoustic image. <i>In vivo</i> Multi Spectral Opto-acoustic Tomography (MSOT) image of a section of an adult zebrafish that expresses the fluorescent protein mCherry in its brain.

Volume 8 Story 2 - 25/1/2010

Listen to the Light and See Deeper

Imaging fluorescent proteins in thick biological samples has always been a challenge. Now a new technique has harnessed the opto-acoustic effect in order to make deep tissue imaging easier for biologists.
The unit of the Bokode. A Bokode is composed of a tiny optical lens which hides a series of miniaturized 2D barcodes. Surprisingly, a camera taking an out-of-focus picture is able to create a sharp image of the Bokode.

Volume 8 Story 1 - 14/1/2010

The Future of Barcodes

Thanks to barcodes, computers can extract a lot of information on our everyday lives. A new technology by MIT, the Bokode, greatly enhances barcode technology, from interactive shopping to inexpensive motion capture.