highest EVER resolution images of atoms zoomed 100 Million times
Researchers have broken the record for the highest resolution image ever captured of individual atoms, creating a shot that is ‘zoomed in’ some 100 million times. These images are so fine-tuned, in fact, that the blurring remaining in the shot is the product solely of the thermal jiggling of the atoms themselves.
The breakthrough by the Cornell University team built on their previous record, set in 2018, which used a new detector to triple the resolution of an electron microscope.
This previous setup, however, was limited in that it could only image ultrathin samples — those of only a few atoms in thickness.
However, the introduction of a new pixel array detector — which incorporates more advanced 3D reconstruction algorithms — enabled a factor of two improvement.
This, the team explains, results in an image that has precision at the level of a picometer, or one-trillionth of a metre.
‘This doesn’t just set a new record,‘ said paper author and engineer David Muller of New York’s Cornell University.
‘It’s reached a regime which is effectively going to be an ultimate limit for resolution. We basically can now figure out where the atoms are in a very easy way. This opens up a whole lot of new measurement possibilities of things we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. It also solves a long-standing problem — undoing the multiple scattering of the beam in the sample — that has blocked us from doing this in the past.‘
The imaging method used by the team involves a technique called ptychography, in which a beam — made up, in this case, of electrons — is repeatedly fired through an object of interest, albeit from a slightly different position each time.
By comparing the different, overlapping patterns formed by the scattered beam, an algorithm is then able to reconstruct the target object with great precision.
‘We’re chasing speckle patterns that look a lot like those laser-pointer patterns that cats are equally fascinated by,‘ Professor Muller explained.
‘By seeing how the pattern changes, we are able to compute the shape of the object that caused the pattern. With these new algorithms, we’re now able to correct for all the blurring of our microscope to the point that the largest blurring factor we have left is the fact that the atoms themselves are wobbling.“
He explained that this motion is ‘what happens to atoms at finite temperature.‘
‘When we talk about temperature, what we’re actually measuring is the average speed of how much the atoms are jiggling.‘
‘We want to apply this to everything we do,‘ added Professor Muller. ‘Until now, we’ve all been wearing really bad glasses. And now we actually have a really good pair. Why wouldn’t you want to take off the old glasses, put on the new ones, and use them all the time?‘
At present, the team conceded, the imaging method is both time-consuming and computationally-demanding — but advances in computer and detector hardware in the future have the potential to speed up the process.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science.
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Ken Hughes
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‘anyone know what the specimen material is?
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JaKo
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Hi Ken,
You can look at the Cornell University website:
Praseodymium Orthoscandate (PrScO3) crystal…
Cheers, JaKo
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T. C. Clark
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A image of gold atoms has been around for years…the atoms look like little BB’s stacked against each other and are gold in color.
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JaKo
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Hey, this is wonderful!
We will have a nice video of covid virus infecting living cells SOON!
Oooh, the horrible spikes, like shaking fingers molesting the innocent endothelium cell — it will be R18, you know…
Cheers, JaKo
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Ian Randall (author of article) and PSI Readers,
Richard Feynman in the first lecture of ‘The Feynman Lectures On Physics’ (1962) stated: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.” (https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html#Ch1-S2)
A year or two later I began my thesis research project in which I experimentally studied the simultaneous diffusion of divalent lead and cadmium cations in highly purified single crystals of sodium chloride and of potassium chloride (common ionic salts). I had no trouble imagining the PERPETUAL MOTION (to which Feynman referred) of these ions (not atoms in this case) which allowed the divalent cations move through the monovalent ions of these solid salts. Which PERPETUAL MOTIONS these SCIENTISTS ‘now’ claim to ACTUALLY see. Except I ask: Have these SCIENTISTS seen anything that others haven’t already long imagined?
I read that Einstein stated: “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” And “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Have a good day, Jerry
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JaKo
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Hi Jerry,
I hope you meant to complement my little post about the imaging of imagined viruses in a Fear-Porn viral infection nano-video 😉
The problem with imagining is bias: all these intelligent CAGW activists imagine quite nicely how the CO2 is heating Earth — which, in reality, is out-right-magic at 0.04% concentration.
Cheers, JaKo
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Jerry Krause
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Hi JaKo,
When imagining one must carefully describe all the observed variables (factors) known to be possibly involved and evaluate the probable uncertainty of all quantitative measurements etc.
However, you should know that I consider argument to not be a part of the SCIENCE process. So, when you referred to 0.04% concentration you were making an argument and I could not allow that to pass without this comment.
For I have observed (experienced) that even a slight, almost invisible, ‘haze’ can be factor which influences a measurable air temperature.
Have a good day, Jerry
I had started a detailed description of what had been observed (via atmospheric sounding data) to have existed af 4am and 4pm the day when a record maximum temperature, for that day. had been measured at our local (Salem OR) airport. But the comment got too involved for the simple purpose to acknowledge I am aware
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T. C. Clark
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Astronomers recently constructed an image of a black-hole by using radio telescopes around the world in a coordinated effort. They are now working on using optical telescopes around the world in a similar way to get optical images that will reveal planets around faraway stars. The process involves using individual photons collected from the telescopes and then assembling the picture from the photons. This is probably years away from happening.
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