Better stick the kettle on for this one, lads…
According to reports today, scientists at the Hamburg Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science in Germany have figured out a way to boil water to 600 degrees Celsius in less than a trillionth of a second. In numbers, that’s 1/1,000,000,000,000 secs.
So, how exactly did the scientists come up with a way to make their cuppa faster than the blink of an eye? Well, sadly, it’s just a theory at this stage. According to the guys at DESY, “The theoretical concept, which has not yet been demonstrated in practice, could heat a small amount of water by as much as 600 degrees Celsius in just half a picosecond (a trillionth of a second).
“All it takes for superfast water heating is a concentrated flash of terahertz radiation.”
Oh, right…
We don’t know about you, but we’re not sure terahertz radiation and tea should be mixed together, but at least we’ll be able to heat the bath in no time, right?
“The novel method can only heat about one nanolitre (billionth of a litre) in one go. This may sound small, but is large enough for most experiments. For comparison, ink-jet printers fire droplets that are as small as one picolitre, which is a thousand times less than a nanolitre.”
Okay, so making a lightening fast cup of tea is still some way off, but sure, you wouldn’t want to rush a good cup of tea would you?
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