Can we freeze time? Using lasers to film the secret lives of atoms, frame by frame
Cutting edge laser "cameras" which can film the super-fast movements of electrons inside materials are the subject of an Imperial College exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2008, which opens to the public today (1 July).
The exhibit, run by a team of Imperial physicists, explains how they use incredibly short flashes of laser light in their London lab to record images of electrons in atoms as they move around at about 10 million kilometres per hour.
To put their research into context, the hands-on exhibit also explains the history of high-speed photography. Over the last century the technology has evolved to enable people to view the details of ever faster events, from a galloping horse and a bullet passing through a card, to electrons moving in matter today.
Visitors to the exballoon bursting in their hand in slow motion, and can blow raspberries into a super slow motion camera which captures all the ...