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The beauty of light, as seen on the last page of each OPN issue
The observation port into a plasma chamber shows a well-defined interference pattern. The contour fringes, observed in white light, are due to a very small particle stuck between two glass sheets creating a wedge effect. The 15 fringes observed in the green light portion of the spectrum (550 nm) suggest the particle height to be about 4 μm.
—Catalin Florea, Avo Photonics
30 Apr 2017
When a plastic bottle of cola, almost empty, is illuminated from above, the freeform lens that’s created focuses light, forming fanciful caustics.
—José A. Díaz, Universidad de Granada, Spain
17 Apr 2017
Texture of the twist-bend nematic (Ntb) phase taken with an applied electric field between crossed polarizers of a microscope. The width of image is ~400 microns.
—Volodymyr Borshch, Kent State University, Ohio, USA
The vertical features lit with blue LED strips are installed at an angle giving a spectacular spiral effect while walking towards the bridge.
—Akshit Peer, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
The formation called the "egg factory" in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness area in northern New Mexico, USA, with the Milky Way in the background.
—Michael Duncan, OSA, Senior Science Advisor
29 Dec 2016
An “alien” made of floating soap bubbles, illuminated with colored lights and a strobe—one of the many great entries OPN received for this year’s After Image Photo Contest.
—Matthew J. Corones
29 Nov 2016
Highly aberrated imaging of LEDs: A typical DSLR lens is replaced with a misaligned singlet lens. [OPN 2014 Photo Contest]
—Page E. King, College of Optical Sciences, Tucson, Ariz., USA
31 Oct 2016
Brilliant aurora lights south of Australia, photographed from the International Space Station.
—Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams, NASA
29 Sep 2016
Caustics from a glass of water illuminated by sunlight. [OPN 2015 After Image photo contest.]
31 Aug 2016
Blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo (20x). First Place 2012 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.
—Jennifer L. Peters and Michael R. Taylor, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn., USA
29 Jun 2016
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