In this week’s Photon Snacks I give preliminary feedback from the survey introduced in last week’s column. I then tackle the topic of typesetting or formatting equations for reports, theses, dissertations, and other scientific documents. The various journal publishers have templates that will help you, and there are equation or formula editors that can be used in software, including Microsoft, Apple, and Google products.

In this week’s Photon Snacks I present two topics: working in a research lab and inviting you to do a survey about future topics for this column In Light Bytes.  For the first I present a basic overview of the steps to land a position in one of the research labs, while for the latter the survey should provide me insight on what you would like to see in this column.

A discussion of the benefits of graduate school, using examples from the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, including M.S., Accelerated M.S., and Ph.D. Within the M.S. program there are thesis and non-thesis options. The College’s Academic Programs office is here to help you learn more about graduate school options, including here and elsewhere.

The optical phenomena that we observe in animals can lead us to new developments in our optics labs.  First and foremost, there is so much to learn from animal visual systems, from birds with four receptors, animals like horses with eyes on the side of their heads, and cats with vertical slit pupils.  On ones journey, one can extend into other optical phenomena displayed by animals, such as structural color that arises in bird feathers to give an enormous palette of colors.  We can also explore the truth behind stated animal optics such as fiber-optic, polar bear hairs. Simply, nature has so much to teach us about optics.