Rays and Waves, a passion project of two optical engineers, Daniel and Steve, who moonlight as podcast hosts. Join them as they explore the beautiful world of optics and photonics. The topics will span across the whole optical universe, demonstrating the versatile applications of optical engineering and feature prominent characters from the community. Ready to dive into the captivating world of photonics?
Rays and Waves
Claim This Podcastby Rays and Waves
5.0(22 reviews)
17 episodes
Updated Daily
Accepts GuestsHas Sponsors
27
Podcast Authority
BetaPoorBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality41
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement32
Podcast Overview
Rays and Waves, a passion project of two optical engineers, Daniel and Steve, who moonlight as podcast hosts. Join them as they explore the beautiful world of optics and photonics. The topics will span across the whole optical universe, demonstrating the versatile applications of optical engineering and feature prominent characters from the community. Ready to dive into the captivating world of photonics?
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
1/17/2025
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27
Podcast Authority
BetaPoorBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality41
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement32
6
Excellent Areas
2
Good Performance
11
Growth Opportunities
excellent
Episode Length
39 minutes
Performing excellently!
good
Show Notes Quality
3.0/5
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needs improvement
Publishing Consistency
Every 21 days
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Recent Episodes
June 16, 2026
Binoculars, an optical superpower through engineering - Ep 16
<p>A pair of binoculars might be the closest thing to a superpower you can buy. That is how a friend once described them while gifting a pair to his wife, and it is easy to see why.</p><p>In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven explore the surprisingly rich optical engineering behind binoculars. From magnification and aperture to prisms, coatings, and color performance, we follow the history of binoculars.</p><p>What seems simple is full of clever design trade‑offs. This episode connects everyday optics to fundamental engineering principles, revealing why small choices make a big difference in how we see the world.</p><p>If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review. Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.com</p><p>Intro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!</p>
May 12, 2026
A space telescope architect’s odyssey from Hubble to Webb and beyond with Lee Feinberg - Ep 15
<p>From Hubble’s breathtaking images to the deep infrared view of the James Webb Space Telescope, space-based observatories have transformed how we see the universe. They reveal black holes, probe dark energy, trace the birth of stars, and even let us study the atmospheres of distant planets, pushing astronomy into entirely new territory.</p><p>In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Lee Feinberg, a true veteran of space telescope engineering. Lee joined NASA during the Hubble era and played a key role in diagnosing and correcting its original optical flaw, helping restore one of the most important scientific instruments ever built.</p><p>Lee then went on to spend more than two decades on the James Webb Space Telescope as Optical Telescope Element Manager. We explore the critical decisions that shaped Webb, from selecting beryllium for its segmented primary mirror to developing new ways to test a deployable telescope at cryogenic temperatures, as well as the "cup up" optical test configuration that made full system testing possible on the ground.</p><p>This conversation dives into the optical engineering behind humanity’s most ambitious telescopes and what it takes to build instruments capable of looking back to the earliest moments of the universe.</p><p>If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review. Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.com</p><p>Intro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!</p><p>Outro music by Lee Feinberg and fellow NASA engineers. Recorded back in the 90s!</p>
April 6, 2026
Project Silica and the future of data storage with James Clegg - Ep 14 - Rays and Waves
<p>In a quiet laboratory, bursts of ultrafast laser light are etching humanity’s information deep inside glass, layer by layer, voxel by voxel. Long after today’s hard drives and magnetic tapes have failed, this glass may still faithfully preserve our data, readable thousands of years into the future.</p><p>In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven dive into Microsoft Research’s Project Silica with their Senior Optical Engineer James Clegg. This is an ambitious effort to redefine cold data storage using focused femtosecond lasers. By writing information as sub‑micron, laser‑induced modifications to optical properties in hundreds of stacked layers, Project Silica turns glass into a truly three‑dimensional memory medium. These tiny structures are projected to remain stable for over 10,000 years and can be read out at any time using wide‑field microscopy combined with powerful machine‑learning algorithms.</p><p>Our conversation explores the physics behind laser‑matter interactions, the optical engineering challenges of writing and reading data in three dimensions, and what it takes to scale such a radical storage technology. We also discuss why long‑term archival storage matters, how this approach compares to traditional media, and what it means to build technology with millennia‑long time horizons.</p><p>Project Silica has been under development at Microsoft for nearly a decade, and the team recently published a comprehensive open‑access Nature paper detailing this remarkable achievement: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10042-w" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10042-w</a></p><p>If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at <a href="mailto:rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.com</a></p><p>Intro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!</p><p>Outro music is Aranas Ananas with James Clegg on drums!</p><p><br /></p>
17 total episodes available
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Gerard Milburn
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Frequently asked questions
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- What is Rays and Waves?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 7 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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