Imagine a camera that can take one hundred billionpictures a second -- that is enough to record the fastestmovements in the universe.
But we do not have to imagine it, because a scientisthas invented such a camera. He calls it an imagingsystem. It may seem like science fiction, but it isscience reality.
Lihong Wang is a biomedical engineer at WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis, Missouri. He leads a team ofresearchers who have discovered several new imagingtechniques.
“For the first time, humans can literally see light pulsestraveling in space at the speed of light.”
The speed of light is almost 300 million meters per second. At that speed, itwould take just one second to travel around the world seven-and-a-half times.Mr. Wang photographs light particles moving at that speed using a uniquecamera.
“The streak camera is a very specialized device that allows us to convert timeinto space. We convert light particles, or photons, into electrons, then pull theelectrons, really hard, at different rates, depending on the time of arrival. Sothe time of arrival will be converted into different vertical positions.”
Mr. Wang’s new technology improves on other ultra-fast cameras in importantways. Until now, streak cameras could only take a one-dimensionalphotograph. That is like looking through a vertical opening and trying to take apicture of something flying by really fast.
The fastest cameras had to have an external, or outside, light source to work. But Mr. Wang’s technique does not need special lighting. It produces two-dimensional images like regular photographs, but at a speed of one imageevery 10 trillionths of a second.
Brian Pogue is a biomedical engineer at Dartmouth College in the easternAmerican state of New Hampshire. He reviewed the new imaging system for the science publication Nature. He says this new way of seeing themovement of light could lead to major scientific discoveries in areas likeoptical cloaking.
“Cloaking” is a kind of technology that can make an object -- like a spaceship-- seem to disappear. Mr. Pogue says the military would like to use cloaking.
“There’s a lot of interest in getting light to bend around objects, so it sort oflooks like you’re seeing through them.”
Brian Pogue says Mr. Wang’s new system lets researchers photograph lightas it bends. He says they have not been able to do that until now. He saysthis development could help make optical cloaking a reality.
Lihong Wang imagines other uses for the new camera in such scientific fieldsas molecular biology and astronomy. He says ultrafast imaging could lead tonew discoveries.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Correspondent Veronique LaCapra reported this story from St. Louis,Missouri. Jonathan Evans wrote it for VOA Learning English. ChristopherCruise was the editor.