Light

While it may not be way up there on your list of grievances, constantly having to reposition a desk lamp can be a bit of a hassle. The Pino Lamp was designed with that fact in mind, as it automatically swivels to follow faces, books, or items of a given color.

Besides keeping your food cold, there’s not much more we need from a fridge, but manufacturers keep cramming new features in there. The latest example from LG is the MoodUP, a fridge that sports speakers and LED doors that can change color on demand.

After the summer so many of us have just sweltered through, we need better ways to cool buildings. Researchers have now spruced up the humble window with hydrogel-glass, which can selectively block heat from the Sun without blocking its light.

Patients who remain in bed for long periods of time may develop pressure sores, which can in turn become potentially life-threatening chronic skin ulcers. A new sensor could help keep that from happening, using scattered light.

The James Webb Space Telescope keeps breaking its own records for peering deeper into space and time. It's now detected a galaxy candidate about 35 billion light-years from Earth, which if confirmed would make it the most distant galaxy ever found.

Researchers have developed a more precise design for "optical tweezers," using a metasurface lens studded with millions of tiny pillars which focus light to trap and manipulate individual atoms. It could pave the way for powerful quantum devices.

Solar cells still have plenty of room for improvement. Researchers at New York University Tandon have now developed thin film that boosts solar cell efficiency by converting wasted wavelengths of light into ones that can produce energy.

Scientists have created a “quantum flute” that can coax photons to move in sync and interact with each other, which they almost never do in nature. The device could help improve future quantum computer designs.

X-ray vision has long been a superpower, but soon mere mortals could see hidden objects with help from AI. A new “ghost imaging” system reads the brainwaves of a person looking at light scattered off a wall to identify an object around a corner.

There’s still room for improvement for solar cells. Stanford engineers have now developed pyramid-shaped lenses that focus sunlight from any angle onto a solar cell, keeping it collecting power from sunrise to sunset.

Engineers at MIT have added a new ability to existing flying robots – they can now glow when they flap their wings. Inspired by fireflies, this fluorescence could help with communication or tracking of the tiny, lightweight robots.

Scientists have developed a new light-activated “photoimmunotherapy” that could help treat brain cancer. The key is a compound that glows under light to guide surgeons to the tumor, while near-infrared light activates a cancer-killing mechanism.