Scientists Take First Picture of a Single Atom

[vertigo_2000]

[citation][nom]leo2kp[/nom]I'm no physicist, but doesn't it have to have mass to be able to reflect a photon? Also, doesn't it have to be bigger than a photon to take a picture of it? Not sure if the Higgs boson can be captured in a picture[/citation]
It wouldn't be a traditional photograph that uses light (photons) to capture the picture. It would need to use a particle smaller than the Higgs. Similar to using an electron microscope to capture "pictures" of really small things.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]leo2kp[/nom]I'm no physicist[/citation]
You got that right!

 

[Guest]

Take that religion!

 

[burmese_dude]

Um this Atom looks like "flesh light" thingie they advertise on web for lonely guys. Atom must be really disappointed to see itself in the mirror. What do I look like? Do I look like Ron Burgundy? Nope. I look like a cousin of flish light.

 

[slabbo]

totally photo-shopped...i mean it even has arrows!!!

 

[philmedell]

We need to go deeper

 

[eddieroolz]

My mind blew up from all the science.

 

[hawkwindeb]

Notice: No Atoms were harmed in the making of this picture

 

[Guest]

Absolutely interesting. However in the grand scheme of things we still know absolutely nothing about our universe, and that none of it really matters anyways other than to keep our curiosity satisfied/dissatisfied. Humans are only here for a finite^infinity period of time in true universal time and the natural state of the universe doesn't care about us or itself.

 

[ashinms]

One step closer to to nanobots that target cancer cells and upload terabytes a second of data to our brains... And ISPs that rip us off for the service in the process.

 

[robojox]

The journalist are just harlots who do anything for a buck.

It is simply the rich need to be taxed already.

I find it funny that most people have hope to become rich. Though the government statistics say that its only 4% of the folk will move from the bottom to the top. Its at its lowest since the statistics have been kept on these things.

 

[Guest]

Guys, the interesting thing is the shape of the shadow! Disregard the parts that are obviously constructed, but the shadow clearly shows circular shapes, which represent the orbits of the electrons, while the dark spot in the center is obviously the nucleus. I think that, seen with the proper mindset, it is an excellent picture!

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]Anonymous[/nom]Yeah so single atoms have been seen before...http://www.nature.com/nphys/journa [...] s1778.html[/citation]
Unfortunately, the article you cite is not about seeing atoms. It is about changing the state of an atom in an optical trap for use in quantum computing. There's a significant difference.

The best that I know of is that single atoms on the surface of a solid have been seen before, if you call "seen" the result of an atomic force microscope. However, the AFM is similar in many respects to this.

Though we are seeing the shadow of the atom in this picture, it is enough to detail structure of the atom. Note the nucleus in the center and the wave-like rings around the nucleus - which are likely the shadows that the electrons are casting.

IMHO, this is a remarkable feat that no other research team has yet accomplished.