Filed under: Science, Science Fiction, tech, YouTube | Tags: blogging, jim downey, KWMU, Lihong Wang, photography, science, Science Fiction, St. Louis Public Radio, technology, Véronique LaCapra, video, Washington University, www youtube
Watch a laser beam bounce:
From the YouTube description:
A video captured by Washington University’s Lihong Wang’s new imaging system, known as “compressed ultrafast photography,” shows a laser pulse propagating in air and being reflected from a mirror. The movie is slowed down 10 billion times to make it visible to the human eye. (Video courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis)
A good article explaining this new technology is here:
New Ultrafast Camera Invented At Washington University Could Help Turn Science Fiction Into Reality
Very cool. Take-away quote:
Wang’s new technology improves on previous ultrafast cameras in two important ways.
Up until now, streak cameras could only take a one-dimensional snapshot ― think of it like trying to take a picture of something flying by really fast behind a vertical slit.
And the fastest cameras had to have an external light source to work.
Wang’s technique doesn’t need special lighting, and it produces two-dimensional images ― more like a regular photograph ― but at a rate of one every 10 trillionths of a second.
Damn, that’s FAST.
Jim Downey
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