Mark Dennis and co-workers use mathematical knot theory to construct complex functions in an abstract 3D space on a periodic braid. The knot function is then embedded in a propagating light beam ...

"Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light-years away ... "If this all works right, we can hold the beam together in space a very long distance — thousands of times the distance from Earth to the sun ...

Wouldn't the adjacent beam of light appear motionless? Maxwell's equations didn't seem to allow light to slow down or stop when moving through space. Einstein's answer—that light's speed is ...

One day, we might want the World Wide Web to stretch across the galaxy, and NASA just took a major step in that direction ...

so that each spot is concentrated at a different point in a three-dimensional space. In telecommunications they can encode signals, increasing a light beam's data bandwidth. They can even create ...

"In my group, we spend a lot of time thinking about artificial light harvesting ... to send them to space. Related: 'It invites us to reconsider our notion of shadow': Laser beams can actually ...

The new findings detail a method to measure the force of laser light on what are known as ... this phenomenon could use a ground- or space-based laser beam to push a lightsail on a spacecraft ...

Free-space optical communication, or FSO, is an interesting and easy way to transmit signals through light beams. Forget expensive lasers or commercial-grade equipment; this video by [W1VLF ...