News Releases

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  The Optical Society Mourns the Loss of Anthony E. Siegman

  13 October 2011
  The Optical Society (OSA) today expresses its condolences at the loss of Anthony "Tony" Siegman, an OSA Fellow Emeritus and 1999 OSA president. Siegman, who was well-known and liked in the laser science community died Oct. 7 at his home in Stanford, Calif. He was 79.
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  Tagging Tumors with Gold Scientists Use Gold Nanorods to Flag Brain Tumors

  12 October 2011
  "It's not brain surgery" is a phrase often uttered to dismiss a job’s difficulty, but when the task actually is removing a brain tumor, even the slightest mistake could have serious health consequences.
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  Borrowing from Brightly-colored Birds Physicists Develop Lasers Inspired by Nature

  12 October 2011
  Researchers at Yale University are studying how two types of nanoscale structures on the feathers of birds produce brilliant and distinctive colors. The researchers are hoping that by borrowing these nanoscale tricks from nature they will be able to produce new types of lasers.
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  Erasing History? Temporal Cloaks Adjust Light's Throttle to Hide an Event in Time

  12 October 2011
  Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., have demonstrated for the first time that it’s possible to cloak a singular event in time, creating what has been described as a “history editor.”
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  Tumor-tagging Nanoparticles, Temporal Cloaks, and Bio-inspired Lasers

  12 October 2011
  Scientists and engineers from around the world will gather in the heart of Silicon Valley next week to discuss some of the latest breakthroughs in lasers and optics and their applications to cutting-edge science, the development of new materials, and medicine.
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  Programming Highlights Optics Innovations to be Showcased During OSA's Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics 2011

  11 October 2011
  Advances in optics research and technologies from more than 850 scientific, technical and educational presentations will be highlighted during the Optical Society's (OSA) 95th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2011, being held Oct. 16 – 20 at the Fairmont San Jose and Sainte Claire hotels in San Jose, Calif.
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  Local California Highlights Optics Innovations to be Showcased in San Jose During OSA's Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics 2011

  10 October 2011
  Advances in optics research and technologies from more than 850 scientific, technical and educational presentations will be highlighted during the Optical Society's (OSA) 95th Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2011, being held October 16 – 20 at the Fairmont San Jose Hotel in San Jose, Calif.
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  Photo Gallery Applied Optics Special Issue on Light and Color in the Open Air

  06 October 2011
  Nature creates countless stunning optical phenomena. Some of the most familiar are rainbows, fog bows, coronas, sprites, and mirages, but other, more complex and often more compelling phenomena are also witnessed and imaged, though far less frequently and often under challenging conditions that require great patience.
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  From Myth to Reality Photos Prove Triple Rainbows Exist

  05 October 2011
  Single rainbows are inspiring, double rainbows are rare, but tertiary rainbows have been elusive until a meteorologist provided guidelines that showed how to find them
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  Researchers Transform iPhone into High-quality Medical Imaging Device

  03 October 2011
  In a feat of technology tweaking that would rival MacGyver, a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis has transformed everyday iPhones into medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices. With materials that cost about as much as a typical app, the decked-out smartphones are able to use their heightened senses to perform detailed microscopy and spectroscopy.

OSA Members in the News