A Rare Occurrence
I'd like to think I'm fairly well-read, and I follow scientific literature when I can (though admittedly, much of this is through second-hand filters). So it's admittedly fairly rare when something sneaks up on me, and surprises me in that "wow, the future's actually here" sort of way.
So imagine my surprise to see how far optical science has come: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902617.html?hpid=topnews
The new material is interesting, but it's the description of other research in the field that really got me. I wasn't quite aware of the advances we've made (and yes, I'm being vague so you go read the article!)