The Dark Side of Light

Physorg.com ^ | February 19, 2008 | Lisa Zyga

[EarthBound]

Light may not seem very interesting in our everyday lives. But to scientists, light’s properties are a constant source of intrigue. The nature of light as both wave and particle, light as the universal speed limit, and the way light interacts with magnetic fields in the atmosphere to form auroras are a just a few examples of light’s fascinating behavior.

Recently, researchers from the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol in the UK have discovered another unusual property of light – or, more accurately, the darkness within light. As the researchers explain, natural light fields are threaded by lines of darkness, which create optical vortices that appear as black points within the light. The group has modeled this phenomenon, and found that the lines of darkness exhibit fractal properties with Brownian (random) characteristics. Further, the characteristics of these optical vortices suggest universal properties, which could help connect different areas of physics.

[EarthBound]

An extremely interesting find, one with possilby universal implications!

[EarthBound]

May be of interest to y’all.

[martin_fierro]

My head hurts.

[EarthBound]

But only in a good way, of course. ;)

[KarlInOhio]

Many people have noticed the phenomenon of laser speckle, which occurs when coherent, monochromatic laser light bounces off a rough surface, giving the surface a speckled appearance. The black specks are interference patterns generated by a superposition of highly coherent light waves reflected from different points on the rough surface.

So is this fractal pattern a feature of the light, or is it a feature of the surface the laser is reflected from? How much does this pattern change if you are reflecting off something with a regular surface pattern in the same general size of the light's wavelength, for example a diffraction grid?

[eclecticEel]

“the way light interacts with magnetic fields in the atmosphere to form auroras”

Wait, what? Whoever wrote this article is obviously somewhat less than an expert on the subject.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

The old yang-within-yin song!

[StatenIsland]

Thank you for posting this. Ping for later read.

[beethovenfan]

it can no doubt be attributed to global warming.

[tophat9000]

bump

[pabianice]

I understood “of,” “and,” and “the.”

[EarthBound]

The responses so far are hilarious! Keep ‘em comin’

[CougarGA7]

This is why you should never screw a lightbulb in backwards.

[MacDorcha]

So just like our attempts at displaying the world accurately “flicker”... so does the real world.

What happens when you degausse? LSD?

[dragonblustar]

[Tijeras_Slim]

I never knew it had cosmic implications, I thought it was just cool with the Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane posters I had.

[CougarGA7]

Not to mention your velvet Elvis painting.

[jusduat]

would that mean the dark lines are anti-light?

[LucyT]

btt

[TXnMA]

That is, indeed, interesting...