Toward clearer, cheaper imaging of ultrafast phenomena

Many mysteries of nature are locked up in the world of the very small and the very fast. Chemical reactions and material phase transitions, for example, happen on the scale of atoms--which are about one tenth of one billionth of a meter across--and attoseconds--which are one quintillionth (10^-18) of a second long. A research team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Singapore, have p...