Nanoscale planar lenses outperform the best glass, revolutionise optics...

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6290/1190

Wow. This is the sort of step in technology that happens once every few centuries

 

I don't see these replacing conventional lenses for photography at the moment as these lenses only work at a narrow bandwidth.

 

Would this tech be of any value to large optical telescopes?

 

I wouldn't think so - the cost of printing one of these lenses at anything more than a few mm across would be far greater than the cost of manufacturing & supporting a 'traditional' lens/mirror element.

If you consider that a 'small' telescope these days has a primary around 1-2 metres, and the largest silicon wafers for chip production are only about 300-400 mm across, there's a big jump in capability required, too. You could do composite mirrors, of course, but the cost would be pretty high.