The 12 papers in this collection were presented at the Smart and Adaptive Optics symposium of the CIMTEC 2012 Fourth International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures, and Systems held in Montecatini Terme, Italy in June 2012.

This, the first book-length history on the development of adaptive optics, covers the topic from its conceptual roots to its successful application on telescopes with mirrors larger than 3.5 meters.

Although conventional adaptive optics can accomplish many useful missions, incorporating advanced adaptive optics into the source and relay systems will increase deployment opportunities by maximizing the system's range and efficiency.

To unscramble the light from cells buried within organisms, the researchers turned to adaptive optics -- the same technology used by astronomers to provide clear views of distant celestial objects through Earth's turbulent atmosphere.

Masatoshi Imanishi, used Subaru Telescope's Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) and its adaptive optics system to observe infrared luminous merging galaxies at the infrared K-band (a wavelength of 2.2 micrometers) and L'-band (a wavelength of 3.8 micrometers).

Their topics include optics for mechanical engineers, optical surface errors, mechanical stress and optics, analyzing adaptive optics, and the integrated opto-mechanical analysis of a telescope.

Adaptive optics for vision science; principles, practices, design and applications.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile first detected the planet candidate with infrared observations using adaptive optics to sharpen their view.

To distinguish S2 from all the other stars near the Milky Way's crowded core, the team used a powerful technique called adaptive optics. The method measures the amount by which starlight is blurred by Earth's turbulent atmosphere and removes that blurring by commanding a bendable telescope mirror to rapidly change its shape.

The search for exoplanets is one of three major science drivers that were referenced in a recent successful proposal for funding from America's National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) programme, which will enable the WM Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to upgrade the adaptive optics system of its 10-metre Keck II optical telescope.