DAS: A Seismic Shift in Sensing

From earthquakes to smart cities, fiber can monitor systems in unprecedented detail.

by Edwin Cartlidge

OAM Light for Communications

Light carrying orbital angular momentum could eventually boost the capacity and performance of the optical communication system.

by Alan Eli Willner

2021 OSA Awards and Medals

OSA is proud to honor and celebrate outstanding contributions to science, research, engineering, education, industry and society.

by Meredith Smith, Kari Apter and Samantha Hornback

Newsroom

Research and Industry News

COVID-19 drug screening / Single-photon lidar / Laser cooling antihydrogen / Imaging pearl’s structure / Visualizing wing sounds / An “agricomb” / Post-Brexit R&D / Far-field holographic endoscopes / Efficient organic solar cells

Light Touch

Mirror, Mirror in the Tomb

Hollywood seems to believe that ancient people illuminated building interiors with multiple mirrors—but is it true?

Conversations

Examining German Research Funding

An OSA Europe research director shares insights from his foray into the world of public research funding in the EU.

Tutorial

A Photonic Neuron

The light-driven building block at the heart of computers for next-gen machine learning.

President's Message

Getting the Full Picture

Looking Back

30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

The “face on Mars”; lasers track docking spacecraft; Hertz’s monumental discoveries.

OSA Update

News from the Society

OSA Fellow stories / Congrats, Alan Eli Wilner and new American Academy members / Innovation School / OSA Technical Group leaders / Honoring Karl Leo / Highlighting advocacy efforts / Commercializing copackaged optics / Thank you, editors and volunteers

After Image

Electron Micrograph