Researchers have developed innovative flat, optical lenses that are capable of manipulating light in ways that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical devices. The new lenses are not made of glass. Instead, silicon nanopillars are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a “metasurface” that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves.

Experimental and theoretical physicists and a polymer scientist have teamed up to use much thinner sheets than before to achieve seeking to encapsulate droplets of one fluid within another. Thinner, highly-bendable sheets lift these constraints and allow for a new class of wrapped shapes.