#Optics

[unbfacts]

A Nigerian scientist, Dr. Samuel Achilefu, led a team that developed high-tech goggles to help surgeons detect cancer cells more accurately.

[389]

Slow Lens is the newest piece from French artist Vincent Leroy, who often explores optics and light in his large-scale installation work.

[processes]

George Mayerle's "international eye chart"

(positive) ca. 1907.

One of many immigrants to live in early 20th-century San Francisco, Mayerle — an optician originally from Germany — invented this chart which allowed anyone to do an eye test regardless of what language they spoke.

[pointandshooter]

light refraction

photo: David Castenson

[nemfrog]

How the object appears on camera film. Interpreting Science - Book Three: Understanding the Universe. 1943.

Internet Archive

[reality-detective]

🇺🇸 Nothing Is What It Seems: Trump, Symbolism & the Flag

I have learned through the last few years, that in Trump’s world, nothing is ever just optics. His words often carry hidden meanings. His actions; parades, flags, positioning, are deliberate signals. They may seem casual, but they are not.

Interpreting them isn’t easy, but when viewed through the lens of history, timing, and symbolism, they reveal a pattern. The past week offers one of the clearest examples of this:

Flag Day Parade – June 14, 2025

Trump oversaw the 250th anniversary parade of the U.S. Army on Flag Day. At the height of the ceremony, he was handed a folded American flag—flown over the Capitol and delivered by a Golden Knight parachutist who descended in a free fall.

That phrase—“free fall”—may seem purely technical, but in a symbolic context it carries weight: a controlled descent from above, a return to earth. A flag once elevated in the sky is now placed back in the hands of its rightful stewards.

As the flag was presented, Melania stepped in front of Trump. Like a Queen shielding her King, it was a visual shift—subtle, but loaded. In chess, the Queen is power, strategy, and protection.

Flagpole Installation – June 18, 2025

Just days later, Trump funded and installed two 100-foot flagpoles on the White House lawns. He said:

“This is something they should have done 200 years ago.”

Until then, the White House had only ever flown the flag from the rooftop, but these new poles are different. They rise from the ground—from the soil of the Republic. The message is clear: the flag no longer floats above the people; it stands with them.

This is the flag of We the People.

Why “200 Years Ago”? — 1825

In 1825, Andrew Jackson won both the electoral and popular vote. But Congress handed the presidency to John Quincy Adams through a backroom deal. Jackson called it the “Corrupt Bargain.” It was America’s first openly fraudulent election.

That same year also marked the end of the Founding generation and the beginning of entrenched elite control.

Trump’s reference to “200 years ago” was no accident. He’s pointing to the moment the people lost their voice and signaling a reversal.

In just a few days, Trump orchestrated a deliberate sequence:

– A military flag delivered by air

– A Queen’s move on the national stage

– Two flagpoles anchored in the people’s ground

– A reference to the Republic’s first great betrayal

This wasn’t theatre. It was a declaration.

The flag is back where it belongs.

The people are back in the picture.

The Republic is being reset. 🤔

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have made a discovery that could pave the way for a transformative era in photonic technology. For decades, scientists have theorized the possibility of manipulating the optical properties of light by adding a new dimension—time. This once-elusive concept has now become a reality thanks to nanophotonics experts from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences in Edinburgh, Scotland. Published in Nature Photonics , the team's breakthrough emerged from experiments with nanomaterials known as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs)—a special glass capable of changing how light moves through the material at incredible speeds. These compounds are widely found in solar panels and touchscreens and can be shaped as ultra-thin films measuring just 250 nanometers (0.00025 mm), smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Led by Dr. Marcello Ferrera, Associate Professor of Nanophotonics, of the Heriot-Watt research team, supported by colleagues from Purdue University in the US, managed to "sculpt" the way TCOs react by radiating the material with ultra-fast pulses of light. Remarkably, the resulting temporally engineered layer was able to simultaneously control the direction and energy of individual particles of light, known as photons, a functionality which, up until now, had been unachievable.

Continue Reading.

[theangrycomet-art]

Lavender Eyes

Minor HC of mine is that bots' built during/post-war who have experienced long term energon deprivation/starvation their optics' turn purple due to the innermost energon breaking down.

This doesn't happen to older bots due to different and more varied resources being used during protoform manufacturing (not to mention the Allspark could better stabilize the frame) that could better withstand stressors

Yes this is based mostly on how Wasp's optics changed colors after his time in the Stockades, but also how 2/3 Stunticons (some of the more notably poorly treated decepticons) have purple eyes

Kofi Page | Commissions Open

[violetfractal]

I want a sensor that doesn’t measure rgb. Instead of 3 sensors, i want 300.. one for each nanometer of light. Take input of the form R^R (idealized). What’s the point? Humans can only see in R^3. at any given moment yes. In time you can rotate the projection of R^R to R^3 to give humans a better look around the space.

[the-shy-lonely-weirdo]

This comic I started a looooooooong time ago and just… never finished it? I had more to it, but never got around to it. If anyone wants more, I might try to finish it.

ANYWAY I headcanon only miners, warframes and Seekers have red optics, thus giving them negative association to the general public. So Megatronus makes his optics blue so he can seem more “like the higher class” and become more “approachable.”

[frogshunnedshadows]

A little more of a broader overview of how those Giant Magellan Telescope mirrors are cast and finished, and what the final elescope & observatory will look like.

[noosphe-re]

[jacques-le-fataliste-23]

Johann Zahn, ‘Oculus Artificialis’, 1685 Via: https://flashbak.com/johann-zahn-oculus-artificialis-472978/

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Pleochromism

Taking a quick break from describing the types of chromism, the topic of this post is pleochromism—which, despite the name, is not actually a form of chromism. Pleochromism is the optical phenomenon that results when a materials has a different appearance/color when viewed at different angles, or different angles of polarized light. It is not the process of a color change caused by an external stimuli, but rather the inherent property of a material.

Pleochromism results from anisotropy in crystal structures. Isotropic crystals do not exhibit pleochromism. Different crystal orientations in a material absorb and transmit different wavelengths of light, which can lead to both subtle or strong differences in visual appearances. This is most commonly seen in minerals, some exhibiting merely a change in the intensity of their coloration, others shifting colors entirely.

Some known pleochromic minerals include tourmaline, pictured above, alexandrite, corundum, and apatite. Commercial applications of pleochromism are rare, but scientists can use the effect to help identify minerals and gemstones.

Sources/Further Reading: (Image 1—Wikipedia) (Image 2—University of Granada) (GIA)

[dead-blehhh]

optics

not me slipping my oc in at the end-