The chambered nautilus is a sea creature that belongs in the same class as the octopus. Unlike the octopus, it has a hard shell that’s divided into chambers. As the nautilus matures and grows, it ...

Pushing the limits of structured light, physicists report a new type of optical vortex beam that not only twists as it travels but also changes in different parts at different rates to create unique ...

The Fibonacci sequence -- in which each successive number is the sum of its two preceding numbers -- regularly crops up in nature. It describes the number of petals around daisies, how the density of ...

Magnetism is usually taught as a story of straight lines, with field arrows marching neatly from north to south. In a lab at Florida State University, that picture has just been shattered by a new ...

A typical daisy is a star-like flower. It features a fringe of white or colored petals and a central disk of tubular florets. Each floret is itself a tiny flower. The tightly packed florets at a daisy ...

Rippling egg: vortex-like waves spread out on the cell membrane of a starfish egg. (Courtesy: Nikta Fakhri and colleagues/MIT) Ripples that appear on the surfaces of newly fertilized eggs closely ...

Beams of light that can be guided into corkscrew-like shapes called optical vortices are used today in a range of applications. Pushing the limits of structured light, Harvard applied physicists in ...