New Camera Captures Light in Motion

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39329/?p1=A2

The system records 0.6 trillion frames a second—good enough to follow the path of a laser beam as it bounces off objects.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011 BY TOM SIMONITE

Hollywood has to resort to trickery to show moviegoers laser beams traveling through the air. That's because the beams move too fast to be captured on film. Now a camera that records frames at a rate of 0.6 trillion every second can truly capture the bouncing path of a laser pulse.

Visualizing Light with a Trillion FPS Camera, Camera Culture Group, Bawendi Lab, MIT
http://youtu.be/P-HqKjBgLPM




The system was developed by researchers led by Ramesh Raskar at MIT's Media Lab. Currently limited to a tabletop inside the group's lab, the camera can record what happens when very short pulses of laser light—lasting just 50 femtoseconds (50,000 trillionths of a second) long—hit objects in front of them. The camera captures the pulses bouncing between and reflecting off objects.

Raskar says the new camera could be used for novel kinds of medical imaging, tracking light inside body tissue. It could also enable novel kinds of photographic manipulation. In experiments, the camera has captured frames roughly 500 by 600 pixels in size.

The fastest scientific cameras on the market typically capture images at rates in the low millions of frames per second. They work similar to the way a consumer digital camera works, with a light sensor that converts light from the lens into a digital signal that's saved to disk.

The Media Lab researchers had to take a different approach, says Andreas Velten, a member of the research team. An electronic system's reaction time is inherently limited to roughly 500 picoseconds, he says, because it takes too long for electronic signals to travel along the wires and through the chips in such designs. "[Our shutter speed is] just under two picoseconds because we detect light with a streak camera, which gets around the electrical problem."

Laser pulse shooting through a bottle and visualized at a trillion frames per second
http://youtu.be/-fSqFWcb4rE


More typically used to measure the timing of laser pulses than for photography, a streak camera doesn't need any electronics to record light. Light entering the streak camera falls onto a specialized electrode—a photocathode—that converts the stream of photons into a matching stream of electrons. That electron beam hits a screen on the back of the streak camera that's covered with chemicals that light up wherever the beam falls. The same mechanism is at work in a traditional cathode ray tube TV set.

Because a streak camera can only view a very narrow line of a scene at one time, the MIT system uses mirrors to build up a full view. A conventional digital camera captures the images from the back of the streak camera, and these images are then compiled by software into the final output. Each image captured by the digital camera records only the tiny fraction of a beam's journey visible to the streak camera.

One result of this design is that videos captured by the team show the sequence of events as a laser pulse bounces around, but they don't capture the fate of a single pulse of light. Rather, they capture a sequence of snapshots from the actions of many successive, identical light pulses, thanks to tight synchronization between the light pulses and streak camera. "We need an event that is repeatable to create an image or video," says Velten.

That is in contrast to what is widely known as the "world's fastest camera," a system unveiled in 2009 by a research group at the University of California, Los Angeles, that captures 6.1 million frames per second and has a shutter speed of 163 nanoseconds, compared to the 1.7 picoseconds of the MIT group.

Because the MIT system can't image events that don't happen on a regular cycle, there are limits to what it can be used for, but Velten says there's still value in slowing down the usually unobservable movement of light.

One possible application is a new kind of medical imaging that Velten and Raskar call "ultrasound with light." That would involve firing laser pulses into tissue and using the camera's ability to record light movements beneath a surface to learn about structures and other information invisible using normal illumination and cameras. The potential for that can be seen in the group's videos, says Velten. "You can see reflections happening and light moving beneath the surface of objects."

The MIT research group previously used a similar setup to gather images from around corners, by bouncing a laser around a corner and then capturing any light that bounced back.

Srinivasa Narasimhan, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who researches computational photography, calls the MIT fast imaging system "amazing." He says physicists and chemists could use it to image very brief events and reactions, or to refine our understanding of how light interacts with objects. "We have known for a long time how to simulate light propagation," he says. "Now we can actually see light propagate and interact with the scene in slow motion to verify these things. Seeing is believing."

Because the MIT camera can see exactly how light interacts with a scene, it is also able to gather 3-D information that could be used to perform novel kinds of photographic manipulation, says Velten. "When you have that extra information about a scene, you can do things like change the lighting in a photo after you have taken it," he says. Startup company Lytro recently launched a camera that records the path that light takes in order to perform similar tricks.

The MIT system's impressive speed currently comes along with some bulk: the camera setup covers a dining table-sized bench, with the laser filling the space underneath. But Velten says the laser is over a decade old, and could be replaced by one roughly the size of a desktop computer. He adds that research is underway that will shrink the entire system to the size of a laptop.

Velten says the research team is now focusing on making the system more compact, identifying specific applications, and increasing the size of the images it collects. Further increasing the speed is a low priority, he says. "We're already looking at light moving, so there's no reason to go faster."

Electronic Handedness in Copper-Silver Combo

Image Credit: A. Mugarza, C. Krull, S. Stepanow, G. Ceballos, and P. Gambardella, CIN2

http://aps.org/about/physics-images/achiral.cfm

The electrical properties of a thin layer of copper compound on a silver surface are exposed in high resolution scans. The images reveal surprising differences between the two samples. Although superficially similar, the two patterns are mirror images, much as right and left hands mirror each other.

This “handedness,” which is also known as chirality, is surprising because the copper compound and the underlying silver surface are built of molecules that lack chirality. Previously, scientists had assumed that molecules would have to have a chiral structure in order to produce handed patterns on surfaces. The research that produced these images shows that chirality can sometimes be a purely electronic effect.

These images show two types of molecular assembly configurations. Each reaction was observed after a copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) monolayer was deposited on a silver (Ag(100)) surface.

"Orbital Specific Chirality and Homochiral Self-Assembly of Achiral Molecules Induced by Charge Transfer and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking," Physical Review Letters 105, 115702 (2010)

This research is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio´n (FIS2006-12117- C04-01 and MAT2007-62341) and the European Research Council (StG 203239).

============================================

The term "chiral" was first used by Lord Kelvin in an address in 1904. In a lecture given in Baltimore on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" he stated:

"I call any geometrical figure, or group of points, 'chiral', and say that it has chirality if its image in a plane mirror, ideally realized, cannot be brought to coincide with itself." [1]

[1] The Mathematical Theory of Chirality by Michel Petitjean.

YouTube: Around the world in 80 days

Hope you shall enjoy noting Dr. Tesla standing behind Lord Kelvin in the movie, he plays Secretary role of the Royal Society (called Royal Academy) in the movie.

http://youtu.be/1Ml-r57H8wA

Consider this all in view of (in context of) the products made out of Copper Ore and being distributed by Gaget, Gauthier & Co. around the world and the central picture depicted at the Malutin's chair.

China aims to put astronauts on moon

by Tim Hornyak December 30, 2011 11:01 AM PST

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57350194-76/china-aims-to-put-astronauts-on-moon/

Continuing its bold space plans, China has unveiled a five-year white paper that calls for putting astronauts on the moon, which would make it the first nation to visit since the U.S. last set foot there some 40 years ago.

"China will conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing," the State Council white paper says, also calling for deep-space exploration of planets and asteroids.

It does not give a timeline for the moonshot, but is seen as an official declaration of China's lunar goals.

The plans come as U.S. manned spaceflight is on hold, with NASA's space shuttle fleet retired and International Space Station missions dependent on Russian rockets. While President George W. Bush called for a return to the moon by 2020, President Obama canceled the program due to high costs but has proposed sending Americans to an asteroid by 2025.

gained access to everything

Such news tell us that common understanding about the nature of things stands far far away from the true reality.

Hackers in China are believed to have broken into the servers of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/hackers-security-china-break-in-chamber-of-commerce,news-13631.html

10:00 PM - December 21, 2011 - By Douglas Perry - Source : WSJ

According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, attackers gained access to "everything" stored on the servers, including information about the Chamber's three million members.

While it was not clear how severe the breach was and what information was extracted, the Journal said that the attack may have lasted for more than a year and was among the boldest moves in an ongoing confrontation and involved "at least 300 Internet addresses." It was uncovered and shut down in May 2010. Apparently, the FBI notified the Chamber that China was stealing its information. Not surprisingly, China said that it had no idea that the attack occurred, that there was no evidence for the allegations and any accusations are irresponsible.

"What was unusual about it was that this was clearly somebody very sophisticated, who knew exactly who we are and who targeted specific people and used sophisticated tools to try to gather intelligence," the Chamber's Chief Operating Officer David Chavern told the WSJ. The Chamber believes that communications with fewer than 50 of its members were compromised. The information provided to the newspaper indicated that the breach used tools that enabled the attackers to "search for key words across a range of documents on the Chamber's network, including searches for financial and budget information."

Big Brother Mycroft/Mikroft Holmes

Curious movie: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1515091/



Nice picture, indeed.

Funny game of letters: Fibonacci numbers

Following the recent funny developments, which have followed my comments entitled "Shakespeare Authorship & Odin":

http://mybrightmaterials.blogspot.com/2011/06/shakespire-authorship-odin.html

related with the Authorship Quest, recently I came across a very interesting video on YouTube concerning Fibonacci numbers by Christopher Vila, Eterea Studious (see below) and noted very funny game of letters which I want publicly to share with the community of curious ladies and gentlemen engaged in the captivating Authorship Quest:

Fibonacci
F. ibonacci
F. Bonac iic
F. Bacon iic

I wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ladies and gentlemen and new achievements in the captivating Authorship Quest.

Helmut Lotti/Lokki Russian National Hymn

As a funny addendum to Thor (2011) movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/

I am sure Helmut shall not mind that I uploaded this video, will be removed at first request Helmut (it is downloaded from YouTube).

world's smallest steam engine

It's the world's smallest steam engine — just 3 micrometers

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45643068/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/#.TubE37KmiAE

12/12/2011

Shrinking an engine down to a tiny device capable of powering micromachines is no longer just a flight of fancy. The world's smallest steam engine combines a small plastic bead with lasers to replicate the same basic idea envisioned by inventor Robert Stirling almost 200 years ago.

The tiny engine re-creates the working idea of the Stirling engine — a gas-filled cylinder that drives a piston with heated gas expansion or cooled gas contraction. Instead of a piston, a plastic bead floating in water has its motion controlled by two lasers: one laser changes intensity periodically to allow greater or lesser degrees of motion; the other laser switches on and off to heat or cool the water.

"We've developed the world's smallest steam engine, or to be more precise the smallest Stirling engine, and found that the machine really does perform work," said Clemens Bechinger, a physicist at the University of Stuttgart and Fellow of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany.

The achievement surprised even the researchers. That's because the tiny engine — just 3 micrometers in size (1 micrometer being 0.001 of a millimeter) — runs into new problems in its microscopic world that cause it to sputter.

Such sputtering arises when surrounding water molecules move around and continually collide with the plastic bead. The collisions lead to drastic swings in energy gain or loss that wouldn't affect a full-size heat engine.

"This effect means that the amount of energy gained varies greatly from cycle to cycle, and even brings the machine to a standstill in the extreme case," said Valentin Blickle, a postdoctoral physics researcher at the University of Stuttgart.

Still, the physicists remained impressed by how well the tiny engine converted energy per cycle on average. The engine even ran with the same efficiency as its full-size counterparts under full load.

"Although our machine does not provide any useful work as yet, there are no thermodynamic obstacles, in principle, which prohibit this in small dimensions," Bechinger said.
The work is detailed in Sunday's issue of the journal Nature Physics.

Very 'funny' joke, indeed: gIQASRJgiO_story.html

The Authorship quest:
http://mybrightmaterials.blogspot.com/2011/11/it-looks-like-that-quest-for.html

is now getting accompanied by 'Cosmic' Level of jokes on behalf of brotherhood of computer & Matrix movie addicted children.

Washington Post, December 10, 2011

“Man Seeks God” by Eric Weiner

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/2011/11/21/gIQASRJgiO_story.html

The Celestial Empire rises to new levels of self-organization.

12/11/2011

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/12/11/china-to-the-world-sell-us-more-stuff/

“China will continue to open its market, attracting more advanced technology from the outside and bolstering higher-valued products to become more competitive,” Hu told reporters. China’s industries of the future will be cleaner, more technological, more value-added and be able to create more jobs. “It requires deeper cooperation with foreign countries,” Hu added.

scientists are excited

Really ?

scientist expects 'first glimpse' of Higgs/Hig's boson

By Susan Watts

BBC: 7 December 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16074411

scientists excited over hints of finding elusive 'God particle'

By Eryn Brown,

Los Angeles Times: December 9, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-higgs-boson-search-20111209,0,311628.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

Scientists eagerly await data that may prove the existence of the Higgs boson, which is key to understanding mass in the universe.