If you have accessed the Internet, it is likely that you are familiar with the Slow Mo Guys, who are YouTubers committed to capturing various events in slow motion. Their videos range from showcasing bullets colliding with each other to featuring Will Smith handling a large flamethrower in slow motion.

After engaging in the activity for more than ten years, the team pondered the possibility of endeavoring to capture on film “the swiftest phenomenon within the realm of human knowledge.” Light travels at the maximum speed allowed in the universe, which is 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second).

In order to accomplish this task, they would require specialized apparatus, which they discovered at CalTech.

“We have recorded footage at extremely high frame rates.” “We are discussing a substantial amount, reaching up to approximately 500,000, which should not be underestimated,” clarifies the host in the video. “Their camera surpasses ours in quality and is capable of capturing 10 trillion frames per second.” Just for comparison, that is 20 million times quicker than the highest speed we have ever recorded on this channel.

They received assurance that they would be able to observe the speed of light thanks to the high frame rate from postdoctoral researcher Peng Wang from the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department. More precisely, they would observe the movement of light along the entire length of a bottle within a 2,000-picosecond duration of footage.

The team explains that the camera only sees light and that the bottle is added on top of that. Still, the result is amazing: 10 trillion frames per second of light being captured as it moves.

A novel approach to diamond production eliminates the need for extreme temperatures and pressures, thus making it possible to create diamonds at a significantly reduced cost. The world of precise crystal manipulation, as depicted in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age, may be within reach sooner than anticipated.

Despite our knowledge of synthetic diamond production dating back to the 1950s, the prevailing method still involves subjecting materials to extreme temperatures of 1,300–1,600 °C (2,400–2,900 °F) and applying 50,000 atmospheres of pressure for a period of 5–12 days. This has been instrumental in meeting the industrial demand for diamonds as cutting instruments while also offering unique colors for those with a preference for rare hues. Nevertheless, the expense of the procedure is comparable to that of discovering natural diamonds, whether for industrial use or as high-quality gemstones, which allows the mining industry to persist.

There might be a significant shift on the horizon as a method to produce diamonds under normal atmospheric pressure has been unveiled. The temperatures remain high at 1,025 °C (1,877 °F), but even at this level, significant savings can be achieved compared to the current heat requirements.

Low-pressure diamonds were once considered a paradoxical concept. Natural diamonds form deep within the Earth’s mantle under immense pressure from layers of crust above, and many of them were created long before complex life forms existed. The synthetic version utilizes liquid metal catalysts, but high pressures in the gigapascal range are still deemed necessary.

Nevertheless, scientists at Korea’s Institute for Basic Science have challenged this notion by demonstrating that diamonds can be grown using a liquid metal alloy of gallium, iron, nickel, and silicon, even without applying significant pressure in a hydrogen/methane atmosphere. The carbon in the diamond is derived from methane.

“This groundbreaking achievement was made possible through human creativity, persistent dedication, and the collaborative efforts of numerous contributors,” Professor Rod Ruoff stated. He omitted a significant amount of trial and error, which the team at the Institute employed while fine-tuning the combination of metals and other variables. When the team switched to a smaller chamber, they were able to make real progress in a surprisingly short amount of time, even though making the diamond itself was a quick process.

After extensive research, it was discovered that the diamonds tend to form at the lower part of the liquid alloy consisting of 77.75 percent gallium, 0.25 percent silicon, and 11 percent each of iron and nickel. It’s not a ratio that comes to mind right away. In addition, seed particles are not necessary for the production of these synthetic diamonds, unlike traditional methods.

“One day, when I conducted the experiment, subsequently cooled the graphite crucible to solidify the liquid metal, and extracted the solidified piece, I observed a fascinating pattern resembling a rainbow that extended over a few millimeters on the bottom surface of this piece,” shared graduate student Yan Gong. “We discovered that the colors of the rainbow are caused by diamonds!”

The process typically takes around 10 to 15 minutes to initiate diamond formation, with growth ceasing after approximately 150 minutes. However, the team is actively exploring methods to address this limitation.

The diamonds produced thus far are of a smaller size, resembling a film rather than a precious gemstone. As a result, diamond companies do not need to be overly concerned at this point. That could potentially change if scientists discover ways to enhance the supersaturated carbon layer that comes before the formation of diamonds. The silicon vacancy, which is highly sought after for creating colored diamonds, can also be created by nitrogen impurities. This characteristic makes these diamonds perfect for conducting experiments in the field of quantum computing.

The exact reasons behind the desired outcome of this particular combination of metals and gases remain a subject of ongoing investigation. The resemblance between silicon and carbon bonds is believed to play a crucial role. It is possible that carbon clusters containing silicon atoms could act as precursors to diamonds.

Mass production rarely relies on the initial iteration of a process demonstrated in a laboratory. According to Ruoff, there are several lower melting point metals that could be beneficial in terms of cost reduction or in creating diamonds with specific shades or properties.

The study has been published in the prestigious journal Nature.

It is possible that the US Navy will try its first powerful microwave weapon on a ship as early as 2026. The experimental weapons, which are part of Project METEOR, will send out beams of very strong electromagnetic energy that will damage drone electronics.

According to the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget documents, METEOR will “provide capability with low cost-per-shot, deep magazine, tactically significant range, short time engagement for multi-target approach, and dual deception and defeat capability.” The USA Naval Institute News reported on this.

The US military is interested in directed energy systems, a new type of weapon that can hurt targets without using solid bullets. Microwave weapons are one type of these systems. These are things like lasers, soundwaves, and even particle beams, along with microwaves.

A very high-frequency wave of electromagnetic energy is used by powerful microwave weapons to harm equipment. If the equipment was used to aim at a drone, the waves would quickly destroy it. Each shot is pretty cheap (at least in theory) compared to rockets, bullets, and other flying weapons of mass destruction.

Part of the push for microwave weapons and other directed energy systems is a reaction to the rise of cheap drones, which have completely changed the way modern wars are fought, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and the crisis in the Red Sea all show. Small armies and guerilla groups can use new drone technologies that are cheap, easy to get, and can be changed to do a lot of damage and trouble for even the strongest troops in the world.

One of the most dangerous threats is drone swarms, which are groups of dozens or even hundreds or thousands of machines that work together to launch an attack. In the years to come, this kind of technology is likely to become more and more connected with artificial intelligence (AI), which will make things even more dangerous.

Using regular weapons to fight this kind of enemy is expensive, but directed energy weapons could cut down on that cost while still being very effective.

According to DefenseScoop, Dr. Frank Peterkin, the Principal Director for Directed Energy in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said in a recent webinar, “Directed energy is basically electromagnetic radiation, whether it’s light or RF [radio frequency] energy, and therefore travels at the speed of light.”

“For those of you who haven’t read a physics book in a while, hypersonic threats are really, really fast—that’s around 5 to 15 Mach.” The speed of light is 100,000 times faster than any hypersonic machine we or anyone else is working on. He also said, “It’s really fast.”

A lot of other countries are also making their focused energy weapons stronger. The UK recently showed off its DragonFire system, which is basically a big laser gun that can shoot down targets in the air. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) showed off the weapons in a film and said they could hit a target the size of a penny from 1 km away.