A team from the MIT media lab has created a camera with a "shutter speed" of one trillion exposures per second -- enabling it to record light itself traveling from one point to another. Using a heavily modified Streak Tube (which is normally used to intensify photons into electron streams), the team could snap a single image of a laser as it passed through a soda bottle. In order to create the slow-motion film in the video we've got after the break, the team had to replicate the experiment hundreds of times. The stop-motion footage shows how light bounces through the bottle, collecting inside the opaque cap before dispersing. The revolutionary snapper may have a fast shutter but the long time it takes to process the images have earned it the nickname of the "the world's slowest fastest camera."
Most of our day jobs aren't nearly as amusing as life at Wernham Hogg and Excel doesn't make things any more exciting. But, if you're looking to spice up your spreadsheets, Microsoft's ExcelMashup.com may be just what you've been waiting for. The site lets you create apps of your very own using Redmond's various products. For example, you can combine some Excel JavaScript, a workbook stored on SkyDrive and a little HTML to create apps that run in a browser. Add a dash of Bing Maps and you've got a Destination Explorer! For the uninitiated, there are tutorials and for the showoffs a shared code space. There's even nifty Interactive Code Snippets for trying out bits of script before adding them to your own project. Want to make the cute girl in reception notice you? Coding your own apps in Excel won't help, but it'll probably land you in less trouble than putting Gareth's stapler in Jello again.
