The popular YouTubers known as The Slow Mo Guys have captured something the human eye could never see before the speed of light. This rare and stunning footage was made possible with the help of Caltech scientist Dr. Peng Wang, using a camera that records at 10 trillion frames per second, making it a true breakthrough in light in motion experiments.
Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy, the duo behind The Slow Mo Guys, are famous for filming everyday events in slow motion. From popcorn popping to flamethrowers exploding, their videos have entertained and educated millions. But this time, they decided to take on something much more challenging, filming the fastest thing in the universe through light in motion research technology.
“We wanted to capture the fastest thing known to man,” Gavin said. “And that’s the speed of light.”
To do this, they traveled to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where they teamed up with Dr. Peng Wang, a postdoctoral scholar from the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department. There, they got access to a camera so fast that it can film light itself moving. The camera they used is 20 million times faster than the ones they normally use on their YouTube channel, allowing deeper exploration of light in motion phenomena.
With this powerful camera, they filmed light as it traveled through a bottle. The actual footage is just 2,000 picoseconds long, but it captures something never seen before. Since the camera only records light and not objects, the bottle had to be added later through digital editing.
The final video shows light passing through the bottle smoothly, giving viewers a chance to see something truly invisible in real life. The moment left Gavin and Dan speechless. “I would say it was one of the most mind-blowing things that we’ve seen,” Dan said at the end of the video.
Their fans were just as amazed. One viewer wrote, “When I graduated with my physics degree, I never imagined I would live to see the day humanity could accomplish this.” Another commented, “The fact that nowadays I can just casually sit in my kitchen and watch how light moves blows my mind and makes me thankful to live in this era.”
It’s not just a YouTube stunt, it’s a major moment in science communication. By teaming up with real scientists and using technology like light in motion, The Slow Mo Guys have made advanced physics feel exciting and easy to understand.
The Slow Mo Guys said they were proud to be part of this project. They were amazed by what they saw. Even after years of filming incredible slow-motion scenes, this moment stood out.
“This was something completely different,” Gavin said. “It’s one thing to see an explosion in slow motion. But to see light itself move? That’s something we’ll never forget.”
