Our planet is crisscrossed with optical fibres that carry enormous amounts of information every second at the speed of light. These data travel as extremely short laser pulses to data centres, where they are converted into electrical signals, stored, processed, and then transformed back into light signals that continue their journey through the optical network to internet users. Because the ever growing volume of data flowing across the web is driving a rapid increase in electricity consumption in data centres – primarily for converting light into electricity and back again – scientists are searching for ways to replace electricity with light inside data centres and computers. In other words: how can we redirect light using light itself, and how can we compute using light? Over the past decade, this challenge has given rise to the rapidly advancing field of silicon photonics, which integrates seamlessly with modern microelectronics. In the lecture, I will present the paths and pitfalls of a more unconventional approach, in which we harness the self organising properties of soft matter and liquid crystals to steer light with light.
How cells use a newly identified signalling mechanism for defense and programmed cell death
prof. dr. Boštjan Kobe Univerza v Queenslandu, Brisbane, Avstralija
