The fastest camera ever made can automatically count individual cells, processing millions of images continuously and doing it 100 times faster than existing light microscopes. This super-fast imaging system could potentially detect cancer cells lurking in millions of healthy cells, and could lead to speedier diagnosis of disease.
Engineers at UCLA mashed up several technologies to build this new camera, which uses a method known as STEAM: serial time-encoded amplified microscopy. It can take 36.7 million frames per second with a shutter speed of 27 picoseconds. It’s sensitive to one part per million in real time, capturing cells moving at 9 mph. It can process 100,000 cells per second.
This would seem to be applicable to non-living systems as well. To read more, click here.