The “To the Scientists of the Future” series is a science video released on the official YouTube channel of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), a Japanese public research institution. It is produced to promote NIMS while widely sharing the appeal and fascination of materials research. Episode #20, “Trapping Light,” is a video about the origins of optical technologies that confine and control light within matter, typified by optical fibers.

Description: The “To Future Scientists” series is a science video series available on the official YouTube channel of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), a public research institution in Japan. Along with promoting NIMS, it is created to broadly convey the fascination and appeal of materials science research. The theme of #18 is “The Shadow of Infrared Light.” Infrared light is an invisible form of light that truly exists all around us, yet we are usually unaware of it. Using a distinctive method, this work reveals the power of infrared light. Though it is a simple experiment, it also symbolizes how changing the way we see the world can lead to new discoveries and ideas.

The “To Future Scientists” series is a science video series published on the official YouTube channel of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), a Japanese public research institute. It was created to promote NIMS and to widely share the fascination and appeal of materials science research. The theme of #17 is the “Curie engine.” Materials such as iron that are attracted to magnets stop being attracted when they reach a specific temperature (the Curie temperature), and become attracted to magnets again as the temperature drops. Using this property, an experimental device was designed to reveal its intriguing behavior through video.