Classical physics theories suggest that when two or more electromagnetic waves interfere destructively (i.e., with their electric fields canceling each other out), they cannot interact with matter. In ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. There's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which John de ...

Light is well known to exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties, as imaged here in this 2015 photograph. What's less well appreciated is that matter particles also exhibit those wave-like ...

In a major breakthrough, scientists have observed a strange and previously theoretical form of light — known as negative light. This marks the first time in human history that such a phenomenon has ...

One hundred years ago today, Albert Einstein finished a scientific paper that would change the world. His radical insight into the nature of light would help transform Einstein from an unknown patent ...

When an intense laser pulse hits a stationary electron, it performs a trembling motion at the frequency of the light field.

Total solar eclipses, seen from Chile on April 16, 1893 (left) and from Mexico on March 7, 1970 (right), reveal the sun's powerful corona, streaming from its photosphere at temperatures of more than 1 ...

Physicists are still chasing the dream of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking to capture the workings of the entire universe in a single equation. When you purchase through links on our site, we may ...

You may think of physics as a way to explain the behaviors of things like black holes, colliding particles, falling apples, and quantum computers. But a small group physicists today is working on a ...