Beating the diffraction limit is something that attracts a fair amount of attention in metamaterials research. Now, researchers from the University of Albertahave shown that fibre optic cables can be made thin enough to replace the copper connections in computer chips, something previously thought impossible due to the understanding of total internal reflection and diffraction. The research, reported in “Transparent subdiffraction optics: nanoscale light confinement without metal”, uses a transparent non-metallic metamaterial to create "extreme skin-depth waveguides" and could be usedful in photonic integrated circuits.