Stopping Time

Time is of philosophical interest and is also the subject of mathematical and scientific research. Even though it is one of the most familiar concepts, the passage of time remains one of the greatest enigmas of the universe. The Platonist Augustine has said: 'What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who who asks me, I do not know.' The concept time can indeed not be explained in simple terms. Emotions, life and death all are related to our interpretation of the irreversible flow of time. The more we think about it, however, the more unclear the concept of time becomes. After a short introduction on the concept of time, I will review historical attempts at 'stopping time', i.e. capturing events of very short duration. In the last part of this talk we will present an overview of current research of the shortest directly observable processes using ultrafast lasers. The level of the presentation is suitable for the general public.