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Fastest-Ever Flashgun Captures Image of Light Wave

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fastest-flash-in-the-west dept.

loconet writes to tell us that a team of researchers have created the shortest-ever flash of light. Weighing in at just 80 attoseconds, this flash has already been used to capture an image of a laser pulse and could possibly be used in the future to capture the electron movement around large atoms.

29 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Who woulda thought? by rumblin'rabbit · · Score: 4, Funny

    My God, James Clerk Maxwell was right after all!

    1. Re:Who woulda thought? by vivin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Light is a wave and a particle and therefore, a "wavicle".

      --
      Vivin Suresh Paliath
      http://vivin.net

      I like
    2. Re:Who woulda thought? by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Funny

      My God, James Clerk Maxwell You crazy Slashdotters and your false idols! :-)
      --
      Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
    3. Re:Who woulda thought? by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ergo, test particles are "testicles"?

      --
      Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
    4. Re:Who woulda thought? by SQLGuru · · Score: 3, Funny

      You may not use mine for testing.....unless it's the latest adult gadget and the researchers are hot women.

      Layne

    5. Re:Who woulda thought? by BotnetZombie · · Score: 2, Funny

      Does this mean that I should call the fabric of my tent - tentacles?

    6. Re:Who woulda thought? by gwbennett · · Score: 1, Funny

      No, test tickles are what they give each Elmo doll at the factory prior to shipment!

      --
      Where is this free beer everyone on Slashdot keeps talking about?
    7. Re:Who woulda thought? by Richy_T · · Score: 2, Funny

      Particles of umpredicatability: whimsicles

    8. Re:Who woulda thought? by turgid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ergo, test particles are "testicles"?

      No, he was a famous ancient Greek philosopher.

      --
      Stick Men
    9. Re:Who woulda thought? by Supergibbs · · Score: 2, Funny

      I prefer 'warticle' or a 'parve'. Ooooh it's kosher?
      --
      First post! (just in case I am...)
    10. Re:Who woulda thought? by bugnuts · · Score: 4, Funny

      Would that be the famous double-slit experiment?

    11. Re:Who woulda thought? by cool_arrow · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought tentacles was a greek god. Ever hear of popsicles - the greek god of frozen confections?

  2. Duckhunt by AioKits · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can I get one of these flashguns for that? I'll show those ducks who the boss is!

    --
    "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
    1. Re:Duckhunt by andrewd18 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Newsline Saturday: Hundreds of mallard ducks found dead outside residential area; experts believe death caused by epileptic seizures.

    2. Re:Duckhunt by PawNtheSandman · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold?

      One's a sick duck and... I can't remember how it ends, but your mother's a whore.

    3. Re:Duckhunt by Drakonik · · Score: 3, Funny

      My girlfriend tells a joke about ducks. It goes:

      "What's the difference between a grape and a duck?"
      Answer: "Both are purple, except for the duck."

      Yeah, it's stupid, but I laugh, and then she has sex with me.

    4. Re:Duckhunt by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Funny

      At which point she laughs?

    5. Re:Duckhunt by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

      My girlfriend tells a joke about ducks. It goes:

      "What's the difference between a grape and a duck?"
      Answer: "Both are purple, except for the duck."

      Yeah, it's stupid, but I laugh, and then she has sex with me.

      Tell her I laughed. How far does she live from Nesher?
      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    6. Re:Duckhunt by silentcoder · · Score: 3, Funny

      Discussing your sex life on /. is such an effective proof of virginity the Silver Ring club now uses it to evaluate membership applications !

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  3. Re:Taking a picture of a laser beam and using flas by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because it's there. Well.. no... I mean it's "there", now. Oh. I mean by now it's all the way over there...

    Dang! You know what I mean!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  4. P.E.T.A will be pissed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    a captured atom is an unhappy atom?

  5. Yep, it's hoax. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is a hoax. see the picture of the light pulse? Well, for one, it's only showing a wave and we all know from physics that light is both a wave and and particle. So where's the particle? Hmmm?

    Secondly, the wave is, well, wavy. And we know, again from physics, that light only travels in a straight line.

    Those damn scientists always trying to fool us! And engineers too!

    1. Re:Yep, it's hoax. by SQLGuru · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dude, it's camera shake......they should have used a tripod.

      Layne

  6. Re:Taking a picture of a laser beam and using flas by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    He wanted a cool desktop background... BTW is there a link to a high resolution picture of that that would make a cool desktop background.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  7. FLASH! Ahhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Savior of the universe!

  8. Ummm.. by InlawBiker · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hate to be a pedantic killjoy, but on that film the light flash lasted about 3 seconds. I could see it pretty well with my naked eye.

    Try again, science!

  9. Electron movement? by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jonathan Marangos at Imperial College London, UK, says the super-short flashes could let researchers image the movement of electrons around large atoms. So, you take a picture of it. Now you know where it is. But how fast is it going?

    Does anybody else see the problem here?
    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  10. Re:What about shutter speed? by n6kuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Film?

    What's that?

    --
    If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
  11. Re:Um... What? by Anpheus · · Score: 3, Funny

    God dammit, now what's the answer? Why are the building edges sharp?

    Feynman would never have left me hanging like that.