Michio Kaku: This Super Camera Captures What is Beyond Human Comprehension | Big Think

Michio Kaku: This Super Camera Captures What is Beyond Human Comprehension
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Today, Dr. Kaku addresses this question: MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. What can this super camera enable us to see?
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MICHIO KAKU:

Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study as well as New York University (NYU).
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TRANSCRIPT:

Michio Kaku: The realm of optics is advancing so rapidly now that at MIT scientists were able to create a super camera that has one trillion frames per second. Now you may say to yourself so what. Well think of a light beam. A light beam in a billionth of a second travels about a foot. Now when you look at yourself in a mirror in the morning you say to yourself “well that’s me.” Actually that’s not you at all. You’re looking at an image that is you a billionth of a second ago because that’s the time it takes for light to go from your face, to the mirror, back to your eyes. Same thing for the moon, when you look at the moon you’re not really looking at the moon as it is at all. You’re looking at the moon as it was about a second ago.

Well here is a new camera that can take a trillion frames per second and actually capture these processes that are beyond human comprehension. We forget the fact that the human brain and our senses have a timescale associated with it. Chemical reactions in the brain, chemical reactions in the eye and our senses take place at a very definite speed - the speed of chemical reactions. So we have a normal timeframe. Our body measures time in fractions of a second to a second to minutes. That’s the normal frame of reference of the human body. But there is a whole universe out there. There is a whole universe out there where events take place on a scale of billionths of a second and another timescale where events take place over a timescale of billions of years - and the sad thing is that we humans, our human brain, is unaccustomed to dealing with these true extreme universes that we never see.

For example, evolution, why is it that so many people don’t believe in evolution? Because they can’t see it happening with their own eyes. And now we’re taking a look at another timescale, a scale of billionths of a second when perhaps in the future we may be able to photograph chemical reactions as they take place. This could open up a whole new realm of science, the science that takes place on a scale of nanoseconds.

For example, take a look at photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a rather mysterious process. Believe it or not we physicists still have not worked out the complete quantum mechanics of photosynthesis, which mother nature figured out billions of years ago. And part of the problem is these chemical processes take place on a nano-scale that is way outside our ability to photograph and that’s why new cameras like this could open up a gateway, really open up the floodgates to a new branch of research.

Directed / Produced by

Elizabeth Rodd and Jonathan Fowler

[Janchik]

one of the most interesting humans on this planet

[pcdispatch]

With talks like this, Michio Kaku can even make the walkman populair again.

[mkp]

One of my favorite physicists, he should have his own television show. I also love his tie.

[TheyCallMeNewb]

Its staggeringly true, as the professor stated; photosynthesis is postulated as exciting electrons in the thylakoid heading through the plastoquinone among other proteins, the resulting concentration gradient culminates in the phosphorylation of ADP < ATP. We're talking about conveyance of single β− and it isn't possible to see on such a scale.

[raistlinpaddock]

im not saying your the smartest man out there (im not in the place to judge that ) but you do explain things in a way i like :p 

[Mafham]

I recently had to explain this to my mother as well. Sounds a very, very common misconception that needs to be sorted out immediately

[Masterpieceman]

I love this guy. he's so passionate about his work! and he does a good job at explaining things in an interesting way.

[djvelocity]

I’m surprised to see this trending in my feed, as this is really old news. Dr. Kaku spoke about this subject years ago, I think in a podcast around 2012 or sometime around that date 🤔

[welshpete]

He who has the best instrumentation, has the lead in science. He who has the lead in science  wins wars . He who wins wars,  dominates  the world  .

[LucienHughes]

Google iamges does reverse image search now, just drag it in.

[badpanda]

But how long would it take to go though all that data

[BigLikeTheSun]

I could listen to this guy talk all day.
And that's exactly what I've been doing; it's great. I don't feel that, "I just wasted 2 hours watching cat videos on youtube" kind of regret.

Viva Kaku!

[thedoc]

1 trillion FPS camera, that's one thing, but photographing quantum behavior is another. This is literally like trying to cut a balloon with a knife made up of balloons.

[MrhibyeTV]

I like everyone on the bigthink crew, but Michio is by far the most entertaining and keeps me interested in the topic.

[dArKoMeGa]

Actually the brain need 80ms for analyze the world around you, and you just get used to the "delay"

[TheBromander]

THIS MAN SHOULD LIVE FOREVER! Thanks you Mr. Kaku

[theconscienceofyou]

I agree with your first statement. This guy knows how to explain things to our level.

of a second is faster than of a second.

Google your last question. Explanation needs more than youtube commenting would allow any person.

[julittok]

Finally an actual scientist such as Kaku is becoming popular, youtube has proven to be useful after all

[diorphillips]

Can someone compile this into an audio file? Because I could listen to this guy while I sleep and have dreams about what he's talking about. I'd be so happy.

[registrationnn]

michio kaku is more than a media star, i wish him a nobel prize for his works