strikes and states of emergency 6 into chaos. and chance the 2nd this is a sham slippage and threat instilled order. 979. that created today's world sport's december 23rd w. you're watching tomorrow today the science show on d w. this week it's about something that lets us see the world around us but which itself is intangible light. we'll be talking about light in everyday life in industry and in medicine. we'll be looking at life particles that overcome space and time. alike based internet.

and the effects of city lights on nature. let's start at the beginning with how we see light. when light enters our eye it hits the retina. and is received by photo receptor cells the so-called rod cells respond to light and duck the cones are responsible for color vision but we only see the light that actually enters our eyes at the un insomnia wanted to know more all. those light travel. during a thunderstorm or you see the lightning straight away but we hear the thunder with the light. that's because sound waves move slowly or as light travels super fast.

300000 kilometers per 2nd. it maintains that speed in space where there's a vacuum and it moves only slightly slower through the earth's atmosphere but other media slow down for example water in which it travels at a mere 225000 kilometers a 2nd. life travels like ripples spreading on the surface of a liquid in all directions simultaneously. and in straight lines which is why we talk of light rays sometimes it's even possible for us to see the. light that does not strike our retinas remains invisible we only see light inside view for example when it scattered off particles of dust or droplets of water and into our eyes. on a rough surface light rays scatter in all directions in shallow water this produces

wavy abstract patterns. when this light hits a smooth glass surface it changes direction through refraction and is separated into different colors. like continues to move until it meets an obstacle in the case of dark clouds it simply swallowed up. and thanks to help are dying star in special theory of relativity we know that nothing can travel at or beyond the speed of light. what is light exactly for one thing it's electromagnetic radiation but only a small section of it is visible to us between violet's and great old wavelengths between 380 and 715 enemy c. . objects illuminated by that light of visible to us we don't actually see the objects themselves. but the radiation that they reflect there's much more to life

than meets the eye. it brightens things up everywhere light is omnipresent but what kind of weird matter is light isn't even matter at all or is it pure energy might only seems familiar to us might particle for photons open the doors to a truly strange world scientists used to believe that light comprised tiny balls zipping around through space then light was regarded as a wave but today we know that depending on the experiment light can be either one or the other. like the wave light is a particle it depends on how we observe it in a sense it's both both at the same time and that's truly bizarre. light may indeed seem like a far fetched notion but it exists we literally see it constantly but if you take

a closer look at it it practically vanishes not least if you try to wave a photon. you know that yes this really is kind of strange at 1st glance. so i'm now sitting on this chair and i have a certain mass if i had some scales it would be my rest mass. that also applies to the elementary particles that were made up of all. but the photon it's different i had actually has no rest mass at all. so a photon both exists and does not exist at the same time photons are never at rest according to physicists they're constantly in motion what's more at the speed of light which is where the next strange phenomenon minds at 1st glance the speed of light seems the willingly fast. 1.3 seconds to the moon or one second to circle the

earth 7 times. but looking further afield there's no longer sound so awesome. then light needs an hour and a half to go all the way to saturn the farthest planet that can be seen with the naked eye and getting to the nearest star takes 4 years. and to the andromeda galaxy and out of this world 4 and a half 1000000 years. 300000 kilometers per 2nd that's not just any speed nothing moves faster absolutely nothing and never the light from a car is headlamps or not move any faster if the car is also moving it doesn't need to. get. light always moves at the speed of light i can't add to it but the consequence of this if you think about it for half an hour is that time does not always pass at the same speed the currents does need side in the mug life never get

. thanks to albert einstein who needed a bit more than half an hour we now know that space and time become distorted when we move the faster we go the stronger the distortion and it 300000 kilometers per 2nd photons move very fast the distortion is so extreme at the speed that from the photons perspective time stands still and space starts expanding to go any faster when be pointless. as the photons perspective. the unit. 1st no longer expounds i'm everywhere in the universe at the same time unfortunately we can't put ourselves in the photon's perspective that would be fantastic if we could join it and also have that perspective everybody that has a mass needs infinite amounts of energy to reach the speed of light the food and all of the things when the consequence of the support of us

a photon would be very exotic it would have no space and no time one kind of site. it's no wonder that light inspires contemplation. but money would leave my approach to life as such is down to earth enough but the fact that light remains a secret on a level that's not the mystical nor romantic. as well that is a factor for me. during a quiet all month when i'm relaxed. of course i think about how what i do every day can be incorporated into fundamental equations the fundamental laws of nature the corn playing the new light shone because the thing is that so that i too. might some of the most profound mysteries in our world not just at the altar as the various religions but also in the illuminating minds a physicist. pretty

strange stuff linus photons have actually been used to teleport information thanks to a phenomenon called quantum entanglement 2 particles such as photons can be correlated in such a way that they always do as the other does no matter how far away they are from each other. like faraway clocks that somehow synchronize. einstein 1st described this effect as spooky action at it distance the entangled photons can exchange data almost instantaneously but in fact it's possible to transmit data at high speeds with normal light sources using a life i intellect. when the lights go on here not only does the room brighten but data is being transmitted

these researchers at the found. institution berlin are working on wireless data communication using lights it's a technology known as life by short for like delancey the visible light transmitters are l.e.d. lamps. l.e.d.s. are the main light source for this technology other light sources would be far too slow to be useful. the l.e.d.s. are switched on and all fixed really rapidly sensors on the receiver device capture the signal the speed of the signal transmission is very high thanks to the fact that life i usually use is a very broad spectrum of wireless data from our ceiling lights superfast but could it be a problem for our vision. the question is does it flicker the whole time. and we can hear the

modulation is very very high far higher than the eye can detect. the small green lamps flickering here are just playful design elements the device was newly developed by the berlin scientists and the green lights tell the user that its operating the prerequisite for this optical wireless system to function is that there must be visual contact between transmitter and receiver if the light source is interrupted the signal is lost the data transmission rate drops to 0. for the. advantage of this optical data connection is that it can be easily confined to a room all i need to do is close the blinds and i'm completely isolated from the outside world. and all my data stay in the room when they're being transmitted. that is a definitive advantage compared to a radio like he's only be picked up from the outside.

the system doesn't allow data transmission to be disrupted from my side life internet was tested in a pilot project in collaboration with the car maker the technology has popped into this box. additionally other life i devices were set up at fixed points in such a way that there was always at least one visual contact despite the constant motion of the robot the data transmission remained stable a big success for the project. in my view this technology will 1st be applied in an industrial field. that's for an objective need to exist we have to show that we can fulfill certain specifications with this technology and at the same time that we have a professional area where it can and will find an application. via the.

data transmission by lights could move into daily life such as in museums or in public transport situations where there are many users at once or where wife i transmission is full to me but 1st a number of problems have to be solved. and then if you move around in a room or you go from that room to another you have to have a system there that can guarantee uninterrupted data transmission. we already have a. kinds of solutions in the radio frequency area we have to adapt those solutions to optics. then will we have a fully functioning system. but the researchers hope to master those problems within 3 years bringing life i out of its nice position and into their life.

there's nothing like twinkling lights to get you into the festive spirit. that human made lighting at nice is bad for the environment light pollution is a growing problem across the planet some of the artificial light that shines into the atmosphere is reflected back creating a dome of diffuse like known as sky glow it can have devastating consequences for creators who survival depends on the darkness. in germany there are many places where it gets truly dark at night one of them is lake stateliness brandenburg ideal conditions for a unique experiment it's 3 o'clock in the morning this is when water police tend to come to the surface of the lake to feed on alki biologist hans hoke is waiting for them. to light from a head torches would disturb the experiment so they switch them off only infrared light is allowed. and his team are exploring the effects of sky glow on water.

they've positioned l.e.d. lights in circles in a number of test basins they simulate various degrees of light pollution. and. this is explained it's extremely hard to develop a test model which allows you to observe the effects of sky glow on an ecosystem what we have here is a very very diffuse light but it still affects vast swathes of landscape at night. areas. across germany europe all over the world are affected by sky glow the. sky glow and the top. 24 test basins make up a floating laboratory the researchers will be trying to identify the extent that sky glow affects the underwater world the life processes of marine organisms are determined by the intensity of light the researchers take water samples from the

test cylinders illuminated to varying degrees samples are taken from various depths and at different times of night and day every type of marine organism from bacteria to algae to fish is of interest the fish confort this is the light allows the fish to see better as they feed and so plankton. the water fleas that were researching normally come to the surface at night to feed because they know the fish can't see anything. they think they're safe to feed on our hands. they use the light to adjust their depth. in the daytime they head to the bottom of the lake to avoid the fish so light sends them a message that it's the twilight sort of permanent twilight and they need to stay in the depths. we're looking at with our water samples whether they're consequently feeding on less out in bacteria and whether this development is perhaps triggering other processes. time for the researches to get some sleep. but

they said there are alarms for 3 hours later. just before daybreak they're up and heading off to fetch more samples from the lake. there aim is to document the marine organisms daily cycles and last night its way today the illuminated basins are clearly visible against the non illuminated control basin the research is eager to find out of the algae in the basins exposed to sky glow have significantly multiplied because the water fleas stayed away from the surface of the water. currents hogan and his team then set about examining their water samples in the lab . they use a piece of equipment that saves them hours of laborious work with a microscope it's called a flow cam it automatically scams the sample revealing star shaped rock algae and blue green algae. everything is counted measured and documented.

these are the algae types that water fleas and coca pods feed on if they dare venture to the lake surface. but the more light there is the less brave they feel. is the sky glow is still a relatively unknown quantity of 1st observations indicate that there is something going on even as a result of just a slight change in light conditions so we have to assume it affects large areas so . the signs are that light pollution adversely affects the food chain in lakes and therefore contributes to more frequent algal bloom for the swedish colleague yes it's nice to go or about to do their last water analysis of the day. not in the lab this time but in the actual tanks they're going to install an underwater microscope

camera. once it's underwater the device takes a nonstop series of photographs these allow the researches to establish the depth of the organisms and where they're headed the camera. as tiny as 1200th of a millimeter. we're seeing now we can see the exact location and movement of these marine organisms they immediately react to changes in light bright sunlight makes them head down to the bottom of the lake. to return to the surface when it's dark the findings are clear. of water and their inhabitants are evidently adversely affected by like pollution. if they're working up of the data confirms their hypotheses. and his colleagues will have identified a worldwide problem now the experiment is over the water fleas and makes the heat can go back to business as usual today when the sun goes down we'll have peace and

quiet to get. a glance behind the scenes television is all about light without it our cameras would record this. the images you see other result of captured light. to get a good shot you need to make sure your settings are right if your camera is out of focus there's no salvaging the image. but a new way of capturing light to change that. what's happening here could revolutionize film and t.v. production research is from the computer science department of germany's arland university the testing out a brand new way of capturing video using light field cameras they not only measure the intensity of the light emanating from

a scene but also the direction in which the individual rays are traveling this is the light field. no photography reproduces a point in a scene long to a point on the film or the sensor. in a light field photography you tray of light is mapped to the point that's being reflected from. so for every point in a scene various rays are reflected in different directions which are captured and analyzed and the physics behind it is nothing new but right now the system is only used for stills it's allows you to adjust the focus of any point on the image after it's been taken if this works for meeting images too it could completely change film making. as whitefield video cameras would allow you to do all kinds of things and post your pictures at the depth of field angle and camera position retrospectively could come off you could even add tracking shots things you'd normally need on the original material but what else you could do them after or you

know. this is them use a 64 individual cameras and therefore send 64 times as much image data 17 gigabytes per 2nd need to be stored in real time not only can you count the late position of every point of lights you can also count kill light the direction of the light rays. it's already works in the lab. now they want to test it under more real life conditions at the animation institute and not fix bugs that planning to film a cellist playing in a studio and capture her movements using light field equipment. and to put it soon by using light field camera as we hope that we'll be able to shift the focus around the space in a way that's not possible with real physical lenses. nuclear that us is so it is an ocean is a great example of what something new and innovative about this technology and

they're going to take a new keys preparations are underway for the 1st light field video shoot in you're right they need to break up the cameras and connect fast lengths of cables and prepare the stage for. the star. the scientists and animation specialists will test whether it's possible to capture this new form of video and transferred the enormous amounts of data at the same time. refuses to come out using 64 cameras gives us 64 different perspectives. in addition to the color and light properties of each point you can also calculate the distance this has huge advantages for post production you can add extra facts after the fact and who knows what. the light field video shoot has proved to success the team has managed to create 3 d. model of the cellist the recordings have captured the amount of light reflecting in

all different directions from every point in the scene. and this means they can calculate the exact position of each of those points. they've also managed to successfully capture how movements using the spatial data they can replicate the cellist from different angles and even have her play polyphonic later. and later for secretly for eventually a light field technology might work like a kind of scanner system you wouldn't have actual cameras anymore all the camera work would take place and post. that. we're trying to bring this technology into film production for the 1st time and that's what's so special when it does exist but it won't be possible until we have the necessary equipment to handle data on the scale of these kinds of productions because people who want to hope to. the

researches demonstrates how the focus can be shifted around the scene. it starts close upon the bow and gradually moves across the various figures. light field video really does work and in the future it could be possible to capture all of these perspectives and achieve these post-production effects with just one single camera. if problem is right why are they buying them even if it did you have a science question that you've always wanted answered we're happy to help out you send it to us as a video text ovoid smell like we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you can all just ask. you'll find as i did of you dot com slash science or drop us a line at d w underscore site tech on facebook d

w dot science. that wraps up today's show next time we take a look at hyperloop a technique that could transport people and goods at over 1000 kilometers an hour is this the future of transport join us next time to find out by.

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