VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
A laser focus
Rox Middleton, Liam Shaw and Miriam Gauntlett look at the history of lasers, from cat toys to modelling the explosion of stars
ROGER McKENZIE looks back 60 years to the assassination of Malcolm X, whose message that black people have worth resonated so strongly with him growing up in Walsall in the 1980s
At least 1.5 million tons of crude oil has been spilt in the Niger Delta since 1958, writes PAVAN KULKANI
ANDREW MURRAY surveys a quaking continent whose leaders have no idea how to respond to an openly contemptuous United States
Based on his experience of Haringey Council Councillor MARK BLAKE believes only a radical policy rethink will reconnect councils with the alienated constituencies they are supposed to serve
Last week the CPUSA launched a new Rapid Response project aimed at mobilising a popular resistance to policies enacted by the new government. CAMERON HARRISON explains
WHAT if you could capture light in a box? Lasers work on that very principle. Light is a wave and any colour is described by a particular wavelength. To trap light in a box, mirrors are used, with the dimensions specially chosen so that the light can reflect off the mirrors and “resonate” at its own wavelength.
Just like a musical instrument, these resonant waves reinforce each other. For a musical instrument, these reinforced waves come out as a sound wave making a note at a particular frequency, which is related to the wavelength.
In the case of a laser, light is trapped at a high intensity, again at a singular frequency related to the wavelength of the light. Some of the light is allowed to burst out of the container, seen as a laser beam.
More from this author
Fraud in Alzheimer’s research raises difficult questions about the current state of science, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The new US administration’s policy decisions are already having seismic effects worldwide, argue ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Natural hydrogen gas could be a replacement for fossil fuels, but its extraction could see developing nations face familiar patterns of land loss and resource theft, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Despite miraculous trial results showing new treatment could halt transmission, corporate greed and patent laws condemn millions to preventable infection and death, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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The infrastructure of the internet relies on submarine optical fibre cables which can be exploited to investigate the oceans and what lies beneath them, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
