Patricia Daukantas, Science Writer/Editor

11/05/2025

OPN's November issue's cover feature explores the transition from copper to optics in data centers as they're being pushed to their limits to accommodate growing AI infrastructure.

Check out the story to see how this is transforming photonic integrated circuit production: https://bit.ly/3JGC9W0

11/05/2025

A team led by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn has made a significant advance to make soft X-rays more accessible: they have developed an ultrastable, scalable and repeatable method for generating soft X-ray beams using a custom-built 3-micron ultrafast laser that is focused into an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber.
https://jila.colorado.edu/news-events/articles/resonant-frequencies-playing-edge-light-3-micron-baton

11/05/2025

10/24/2025

The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds that were carbonized in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

10/24/2025

10/24/2025

Researchers led by JILA and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fellow Jun Ye have shown how to make atomic clocks even more precise by leveraging entanglement. This allows the atoms to “tick” more in sync, reducing the randomness that usually limits how precisely we can measure time.

Their results show that it’s possible to go beyond what’s known as the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL)—a fundamental barrier in quantum measurements—by using a technique called spin squeezing. This work could help improve everything from GPS systems to tests of gravity and the nature of the universe.

https://jila.colorado.edu/news-events/articles/entangled-time-pushing-atomic-clocks-beyond-standard-quantum-limit

10/24/2025

Impressive technology!

THE INOUYE JUST COMPLETED ITS LARGEST AND FASTEST SINGLE-DAY DATA TRANSFER TO DATE. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, built and managed by the NSF National Solar Observatory (NSO), just set a new institutional record: the fastest and largest single-day tran...

10/24/2025

This view has us going AWOO!! 🌕🐺

In this picture, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory sits atop Cerro Pachón in Chile, spookily outlined against the full Moon. A trick of perspective has enlarged the Moon beyond the size we’d naturally see it on Earth — a view that werewolves would hate.

Rubin is a joint program of NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

📸: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NSF/DOE/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/H. Stockebrand

10/24/2025

It will be interesting to see how this publishing model works in the long term and how many other journals will adopt it (if they haven't already).

We're excited to announce a new publishing approach from the Optica Publishing Group!

Starting in 2026, will pilot the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model, which facilitates open access publishing while balancing the needs of authors, libraries and the broader scientific community.

Learn more about how the S2O model can enable open access without article processing charges:
https://bit.ly/4nohRhT

09/16/2025

It's Pythagorean Triple Square Day! Link in the comments.

09/16/2025

Come enjoy cooler temperatures & even cooler telescopes at Kitt Peak 🤗

Our staff member Reynese Maldonado is excited to welcome visitors to cool off on the mountain into September.

Kids 13 & under get in FREE on daytime tours all month 👉 https://ow.ly/1SQI50WWICc

08/19/2025

Happy Birthday, Cerro Tololo!

🎂 60 years and still looking up!
Since 1965, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) has been exploring the Universe from its mountaintop home near the Andes. In this photo, the telescopes glow under the Milky Way - like candles on a birthday cake - with Venus, Mars, and Saturn joining the party. 🌌✨

Here’s to many more years of discovery from our corner of Chile. ❤️🔭

From left to right:
🔭 US Naval Observatory Deep South Telescope
🌟 DIMM1 Seeing Monitor
🔭 UBC Southern Observatory
🛡️ Planetary Defense 1.0-meter Telescope
📷 Curtis Schmidt Telescope
🌌 Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope
🔭 SMARTS-GSU 1.5-meter Telescope

📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek