ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Time stretch quantitative phase imaging

Have you ever stretched a rubber band so far that it became longer and skinnier? Well, that's kind of like what scientists do with light waves in time stretch quantitative phase imaging!

They take a fancy microscope that can look at really small things like cells, and they shine a beam of light at the cells. The light wave bounces off the cells and travels back to the microscope, where it gets stretched out - kind of like pulling a rubber band - so the scientists can see it better.

But here's the cool part: while the light wave is getting stretched out, the microscope also takes pictures of it very fast, like a billion times a second! This lets the scientists measure the "shape" of the wave, which tells them how the cells are moving and growing.

By using time stretch quantitative phase imaging, scientists can learn a lot about cells and how they work. It's kind of like taking a really close-up picture of tiny shape-shifters!