HyperPhysics - Optics

No new special physics but an interesting homepage of the Georgia State University.

HyperPhysics

HyperPhysics explains concept in physics and was originally built for high school physics teachers. Nevertheless it is useful for students or independent learners as well. The site design could need an update. However, you should not be scared because of that. The site is maintained and still under continuous development by Carl Rod Nave (I guess that he is also the founder) and has over 3 million users per year.

The "light and vision", respectively optic, part presents a interesting and good overview about the general concepts in optics.

Light and Vision

The concepts are well explained and contain often some examples. For the ones who want to repeat or getting quickly an overview about general optic concepts, this site is ideal.

If you search for detailed nonlinear optic or laser physcis/ technology, you should visit this post: Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

Have fun!

Photonics Clusters

On the SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering) homepage I found an interesting page which lists a lot of photonics cluster all over the world.

Photonics Clusters

In total they listed over 30 photonics clusters with over 700 member organizations. As photonics cluster SPIE refers as

"Optics and photonics clusters are concentrations of optics-related firms and universities that maintain strong research and workforce ties, create quality jobs, share common economic needs, and work with government and stakeholders to strengthen the industry."

(from SPIE Photonics Cluster page)

Most of the clusters are located to a region of the country. Especially a lot of clusters exist in germany. Most of the cluster homepages are well made (even, some links on the SPIE page are not working anymore). Spend some time to visit the cluster page in your region. Even, the clusters are not directly relevant for university research groups, they still have some interesting information for you (and if it is only the member and job list ;) ).

some clusters:
Spanish cluster (Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics (SECPhO) )
BayernPhotonics (Germany)
Optics Valley France
Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster, Inc. (USA)

have fun!

Art+Science.

This blog is mainly for lasers and things related to research but in this entry i would like to comment
some other uses of light and lasers.

Watching light itself is appealing and it is part of the art. In the FastLight festival in the framework of the
150 years of MIT you can see a great example of mixture between science, technology and art.

This is the link --> http://arts.mit.edu/fast/fast-light/

Enjoy with the light.

50 and 1 years of laser

Very nice talk at MIT celebrating the
50 years of the laser.

The museum of sciences of MIT hosted this nice talk
Check it out !

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/839