If you had ever wanted to know how a bullet travels in slow motion, when fired, you will be able to see it for real in detail, thanks to a camera developed by the scientists at the Imperial College, London. That is not all; you can even watch the activity of electrons in an atom in slow motion. The laser camera uses astonishingly short flashes of light and records images of electrons in atoms. It is being exhibited at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2008 and visitors can amuse themselves by filming funny expressions while blowing raspberries etc. These laser cameras run at 1000 frames where as the real ones at the Lab use flashes of laser to achieve 10-million-billion frames per second. The research exhibit may amuse the visitors for sure, but the idea behind the research is more profound; to evaluate and study the movement of electrons in an atom and possibly control and manipulate electrons in the future. This could help in controlling chemical reactions, design new materials and create electron gadgets and equipments that are exponentially faster. The technology has been named spintronics, which aims to use the property of the electron to ‘spin’ or the ‘magical moment’ in different fields like gadgets, medicine, material creation etc. The exhibit opened for the public on July 1.
Via: Physorg
