Daily News Briefs

Bored kids on your hands? Why not encourage them to split white light? That's just one of many ideas available at OpticsforKids.org, an entertaining educational resource created by the Optical Society of America (OSA) to help inspire future generations of scientists and engineers. Featured are experiments involving household objects, such as how to split white light or make optical devices like a water lens or telescope; optical illusions, word finds and hidden-object challenges; and lesson plans for students of all levels that illustrate everyday optics applications. . . . Jeannine Sargent was promoted to executive vice president, general manager of Veeco Instruments Inc.'s Research Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) business unit, which Veeco has renamed Nano-Bio Instruments. The Nano-Bio Instruments unit will extend Veeco's AFM/scanning probe research product line to accelerate product development in nanomaterials, life sciences and biological AFM applications, including new instruments for atomic-level nanomaterials research. Veeco, based in Woodbury, N.Y., provides metrology and process equipment systems for semiconductor, data storage, telecommunications and scientific/research markets.