Jeff Hecht
Writing About Science and Technology
I write extensively about science and technology for a variety of magazines. I write regularly for two magazines, New Scientist, and Laser Focus World, which are described below. I also write for a number of other magazines, and have contributed to several books, a few of which are listed below
New Scientist is a weekly science magazine published in London.
I cover fields
including paleontology, astronomy, geology, archaeology, space, technology, physics,
and the environment. Mostly I write news stories, but I also write features. Check out the magazine's web site at http://www.newscientist.com
. If you search for my name by clicking this link, you can search for my most recently published articles. I enjoy writing for the magazine, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.
Laser Focus World is a monthly trade magazine serving the laser industry.
I was managing editor of the magazine from 1974-1981, and am currently a contributing
editor and the institutional memory. For the past several years I've been writing monthly features on photonic and fiber-optic research and technology. You can find some of my articles by searching for my name. Laser Focus
World is part of the Advanced Technology group of Pennwell Publishing. For
more information on the magazine, and on other publications including free electronic
newsletters on the laser industry and medical lasers, try its web site at Laser
Focus World.
Other Magazines and Web Sites
This is a list of selected articles I've written for other magazines and web sites over the past several years.
- "The History of the X-Ray Laser," Optics & Photonics News May 2008
- "The Breakthrough Birth of the Diode Laser," Optics & Photonics News July/Aug 2007
- "Space: Dual threat," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Sep-Oct 2006, space technology with dual weapon applications
- "Slow Light and Fast Data Links: Report from OFC 2006", Optics & Photonics NewsJune 2006
- "Report from OFC/NFOEC 2005: Turning Cutting-Edge Optical Technology into Practical Applications", Optics & Photonics News May 2005
- "Advances in Efficiency, Speed Reported at OFC 2004". Optics & Photonics News May 2004
- "Is Cold Fusion Heating Up" TechnologyReview.com, Apr 23, 2004
- "A New Nano-Twist for Unclad Optical Fibers", Optics & Photonics News April 2004
- "Fiber to the Home Why "the Last Mile" Is Truly the Hardest", Optics & Photonics News March 2003
- "Solid-State High-Energy Laser Weapons", Optics & Photonics News January 2003
- "The Evolution of Optical Amplifiers", Optics & Photonics News August 2002
- "State of the Art Fiber,"
Upside September 2001, a status report on fiber technology.
- "Breaking the metro bottleneck," Technology Review June
2001,
- "Building a fiber-optic communication industry," Optics & Photonics News, March 2001
- "The clearest glass in the world," Optics & Photonics News
October 2000
- "Information pipe lines," (optical networks) Upside September
2000
- "Fiber opticsto the home" Technology Review, March/April 2000
- "How We Became Wired with Glass," American Heritage of Invention
& Technology, Winter 2000. A short history of fiber optics, based
on City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics.
- "The Lost Generation of Fiber Optics," Optics & Photonics
News November 1999, looks at the independent inventions of fiber optics
from a more optics-oriented view than the Analog article below.
- "Illuminating the Origins of Light Guiding," Optics & Photonics
News October 1999
- "Wavelength-Division Multiplexing," Technology Review,
Mar/April 1999
- "The Lost Years of Fiber Optics," speculates what might
have happened if fiber optics had taken off the first time it was invented.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 1999
- "Tilt-a-World," Earth June 1998, could the Earth's crust have slipped to tilt the continents?
- "Contenders for the Crown," Earth Feb 1998, the biggest predatory dinosaurs
- "The Amazing Optical Adventures of Todd-AO" in the October 1996
issue of Optics and Photonics News tells the fascinating saga of how
optical engineers worked with promoter Mike Todd to make wide screen movies.
Book Contributions
- "Computers Full of Light: A Short History of Optical Data Communications," in Casimer DeCusatis ed, Handbook of Fiber-Optic Data Communications: A Practical Guide to Optical Networking 3rd ed (Academic Press, San Diego, 2008)
- "Lasers" in Richard C. Dorf editor, Electronics, Power Electronics, Optoelectronics, Microwaves, Electromagnetics and Radar (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2006)
- National Geographic Atlas of the World
- Encyclopedia Britannica, "Lasers"
- The Macmillan Atlas of the Future
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