I think its very interesting, but it has been around for a year or two.
They are likely talking it up again because they need another government grant. University research projects compete for the government research money, and MIT has a really good PR department.
Its not actually photography at a trillion times a second, thats just part of the PR hype.
You see the same hype with Black Silicone, every time they need more research money, its suddenly in the news.