In 1964 Professor Harold Edgerton took this now-famous photo of a bullet piercing an apple. He was a pioneer in stop-action photography.
This photo was taken in one millionth of a second. And, it’s spectacular.
Now, photos can be taken in one trillionth of a second. Yes, that’s a t, for trillion.
This means that slow motion videos can be taken of light in motion. This is much faster than a speeding bullet. So much so, that the same video of the bullet and the apple would extend to being a video one year in duration.
The Femto camera, as pioneered and explained in this TED video by Ramesh Raskar at MIT is a remarkable invention.
By firing laser beams of light and using the Femto camera, a new super power may possible, for all of us. We may all be able to harness the ability to see around corners. It also as the potential to revolutionise x-rays and medical scanning.
New super powers, frickin’ laser beams, this is a technology that definitely is helping science become the new sexy.