JAKE SALTZMAN, NEWS EDITOR [email protected]CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Dec. 15, 2020 — A team of researchers from the University of Illinois has developed a spherical lens capable of allowing incoming light — from any direction — to be focused on the lens’s surface opposite the input direction into a very small spot. The lens is one of multiple microlens designs the researchers introduced, each of which are 3D printed and feature adjustable refractive indices. Standard lenses have a single refractive index and, as a result, only a single access point for incoming light to travel through the lens. 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