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Atomic bonds are too small to see, right? Well, what do you suppose THIS is a picture of!?!?!?
That B&W structure is an actual image of a molecule and its atomic bonds. The first of its kind, in fact, and a breakthrough for the crazy IBM scientists in Zurich who spent 20 straight hours staring at the "specimen"--which in this case was a 1.4 nanometer-long pentacene molecule comprised of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms.You can actually make out each of those atoms and their bonds, and it's thanks to this: An atomic force microscope.
hat tip: Ben
Physical Science
Comments
that's pretty amazing.
Posted by: JohnV | August 28, 2009 4:22 PM
Nice find, Greg! I'm going to write this up (with the physics) too!
Posted by: Ethan Siegel | August 28, 2009 5:14 PM
I'll have to look at those details - even at incredibly low temperatures there is still a lot of molecular movement (especially over 20 hours) and there is also the matter of the certainty in the positioning of that needle on the AFM, the roughness of the surface that the molecule is on etc.
Posted by: MadScientist | August 28, 2009 5:58 PM
Yes, thanks Greg; and Ethan, please do!
Posted by: NewEnglandBob | August 28, 2009 5:59 PM
That looks suspiciously like a B&W photo of a starting light for a dragster car race.
Well, maybe for very tiny dragsters.
Posted by: Charles | August 28, 2009 6:45 PM
Nonsense. That's obviously a picture of a Mutant Cyborg Caterpillar. A New and Terrible SECRET GOVERNMENT WEAPON.
Posted by: llewelly | August 28, 2009 6:52 PM
FAIL! Too late Science Blogger, I saw this in my news scanning earlier today and emailed it out to friends the minute it showed in my BBC RSS feed. Nice to see I'm not the only one fascinated.
Posted by: megan | August 28, 2009 9:12 PM
What's the rush?
Posted by: Charles | August 29, 2009 3:04 AM
That's amazing and quite inspiring. I can't blame him for staring at it.
Posted by: Eirikur | August 29, 2009 4:04 AM
This gives us a directview of molecular bond sequencing all we need do is supply the projected dipodal fields to realize the third dimensional image
Posted by: CRWalters | August 29, 2009 2:01 PM
That is so cool!
Posted by: Phil | August 29, 2009 3:54 PM
Very neat! How did they hold it still?
Posted by: Monado | August 29, 2009 8:45 PM