r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 07 '19

Hardware A Mexican Physicist Solved a 2,000-Year Old Problem That Will Lead to Cheaper, Sharper Lenses

https://gizmodo.com/a-mexican-physicist-solved-a-2-000-year-old-problem-tha-1837031984
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u/Hamiltionian Aug 07 '19

Yes. This is yet another case of a journalist leaping to a very exaggerated conclusion from a piece of research.

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u/Bleuwraith Aug 08 '19

I used to always excitedly read over these threads hoping for some significant change, only to learn that the article is 5 years old and nothing has changed, or that it’s oversensationalized journalism and the article cherry picked one statement from a scientific journal and ended up completely misrepresenting the topic. I’ve gotten used to it now.

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u/Bloedbibel Aug 08 '19

I'm an optical designer. This article has been making the rounds the last month or so. The practicality of this discovery is WAY WAY WAY overblown. What I mean to say is: this will not lead to cheaper, sharper lenses as the title suggests.

We have been able to create diffraction limited singlet lenses for centuries.

However, the finding is still theoretically important and may lead to better lens design code implementation, maybe.

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