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- Black Hole Lasers, Mosaic-Lenses, Datacentre Trouble, and Vanishing Scientists
Black Hole Lasers, Mosaic-Lenses, Datacentre Trouble, and Vanishing Scientists
This week’s science bits from SWTG
Marcus Gee-Lim
April 29, 2026
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Laser Inspired by Black Holes Traps Light in New Way
Figure: Xu et al, Advanced Science (2026): e17466
Researchers from Bar Ilan University in Israel have demonstrated a new type of laser based on the physics of black holes. Instead of trapping light between mirrors, as conventional lasers do, the team built a small three-dimensional structure modelled after the geometry near a black hole horizon. Near a real black hole, light is bent so much that it circles around the black hole, creating what is called the “photon sphere.”
The researchers recreated this phenomenon with a printed polymer containing a laser dye. The structure is shaped so that light in the medium follows paths similar to those near a black hole’s photon sphere. The structure is then fed (“pumped”) with light of one frequency that gets absorbed by the laser dye. When triggered with another signal, the dye emits coherent radiation from standing wave patterns in the trapping region.
The key idea is that the geometry of the medium itself acts as an attractor for light rather than focusing it to a point, offering a different route to achieve lasing. The experiment is a proof of principle within analogue gravity, where wave behaviour in structured media mimics that in curved spacetime. While the connection to real black holes is purely mathematical, it shows how concepts from gravitational physics can inspire new optical designs.
This week’s video is about the headline-grabbing cases of vanishing scientists linked to classified research in the US. Not to wade into conspiracy theory territory, but ... it's very odd. Here are my thoughts.
Disorder Improves Superflat Metalenses
The new mosaic-based metalens, artist’s impression. Credit: Dr Chi Li/Monash University
Imagine a chip thinner than a sheet of paper that can bend, focus, and filter light in a dozen different ways at once — that's the promise of a new kind of optical device developed by researchers at Monash University. These devices are called metasurfaces: ultra-thin arrays of nanoscale structures already used across imaging, sensing, and quantum computing. They manipulate light in ways traditional glass lenses and filters can't. Their big promise is that they are much less bulky, and hence ideal for small gadgets.
A persistent limitation of metalenses, however, has been that each device typically performs only one function — so you'd need a whole stack of them to do anything complex. The Monash team broke this impasse by scattering the tiny light-controlling elements into a jumbled, mosaic-like pattern instead of neat rows. This, they discovered, didn't degrade the performance, but actually improved it! They managed to squeeze 11 different optical functions onto the space of previously just one, such as focusing different wavelengths in the same place (usually a challenge for flat lenses) and allowing different polarization filters. Press release here. Paper here.
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America’s Data Center Trouble
The new metalens. Credits: Menon Lab
The US government under President Trump has made AI dominance their goal, but things aren’t going as planned. More and more data center constructions are facing delays. Exactly who or what is to blame is somewhat unclear. What we do know is that Bloomberg blames tariffs on Chinese imports; Andy Patrizio (writing for Data Centre Knowledge) claims the real problem is a shortage of memory chips; and Elon Musk is on record as saying that the problem isn’t chips but energy supply. “The limiting factor for AI deployment is fundamentally electrical power,” he said in January while at Davos.
I think the issue is (rather mundanely) that many planned projects can’t get grid connections – the lines just aren’t there. The International Energy Agency has been warning of this problem for years, and a recent report from Morgan Stanely supports these worries. According to Morgan Stanley, “Developers expect power constraints by 2027–2028 due to underinvestment in grids and potential supply chain disruption.” The tariffs on Chinese goods like batteries and transformers don’t help, but the underlying problem is that governments have neglected grid infrastructure for decades, and there is no fast way to catch up now.
This is not just a problem for data centres, but also for renewable energy projects. And this means that for new data centres to have a chance going online quickly, they’d have to build their own energy supply. Possible, but much more difficult to do – hence the many delays and cancellations.
Check out this month’s episode of “What’s New In Science” featuring me and Lawrence Krauss.
