ABSTRACT
Human hearts beat once every second, while mice hearts beat 10 times every second. The longest time scale is the age of the universe, which astrophysicists are interested in, while the shortest time scale is the lifetime of elementary particles, which high-energy physicists are interested in. A biologist may be interested in photosynthesis, and a climatologist may be interested in a weather pattern. However, there is a large time segment that is claimed by several disciplines. Nuclear dynamics is another important area for ultrafast phenomena research. Because nearly all chemical and biological reactions involve protons, the experimental detectability of the dynamical process is essential to our understanding. Nuclei are heavier, so the time scale is longer than that for electrons. Ultrafast phenomena exist in different branches of sciences. They underlie many aspects of our observation. Ultrafast laser technology finally provides us exciting opportunities to explore new frontiers from materials design, chemical reactions to photosynthesis.
