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New Type of Atomic Microscope On the Way
Iddo Genuth writes "Researchers at the Surface Science Laboratory at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid have created an ultrasmooth mirror that could be used to create a revolutionary new atomic microscope within the next several years. The new atomic microscope — using helium atoms for imaging — has the potential to provide the same resolution as existing electron microscopes but without many of the problems which have plagued them for years."
http://mailman.mcmaster.ca/mailman/private/cdn-nucl-l/0712/msg00004.html or did we find more to use in microscopes and other things, like balloons?
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I'm all for scientific progress, but I can't help but find it unfortunate that the key element to making this new microscope is helium
seems like my voice will not sound like a chipmunk's even sooner if this becomes a popular standard
My father has been working with Helium Ion Microscopes for a few years now - not the same as helium atoms of course, but the goals are the same (avoiding damage to the sample, improved resolution, firing a single concentrated beam of atoms instead of spewing electrons, etc). And they're... beta. Improving, but decidedly beta.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I like my microscopes made out of several billion atoms thank you very much.
I like your optimistic point of view. Like you, I too hope one day this can become a reality. Everyone getting along and not being afraid to be who they are. That would be so nice.
*sigh* one can only dream...
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This isn't a new type of microscope, this is actually kind of old. I was working in a lab doing this as an undergrad in 94. It really only works with very smooth (as in atomic level smooth) crystalline structures. You can build 3-d data, that's for sure, but only by growing them and watching them build as you shoot helium at it (via rotating the mirror and watching the diffraction). Purely surface chemistry "simple" crystals. Unless for things like protein structures, where X-ray is the way to go.
What these guys did was merely figure out a way to reflect helium better, so you get more exact data the first time around, rather than having to run the same test over and over and doing averages to get rid of the noise. Good for science, sure, but hardly a new microscope.
Burn Hollywood Burn
hehe, pretty awesome job whoever you are. One of the few offtopic, trollish ACs that manage to get regular responses to the posts.
/. articles". I'm sure there are many more options... I sure do prefer these to the shit eating posts.
You're gonna have to get some new material soon though - I've seen this a bunch of threads now.
Maybe you can do a sequel of "what if the majority of people were Muslim" or "what if the majority of people were Ass Clowns that like to post repetitive shit on
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
...that the bacteria will have high-pitched voices?
RANDOM CHRISTIAN: Jesus told us to love one another, and we do love everyone... except for jews, blacks, chinese, gays, lesbians, catholics, muslims, communists, mexicans, europeans, the french, elitists, plus a random sampling of at least 50% of the rest of the world.
ANOTHER RANDOM CHRISTIAN: Yeah, right on, we're proud to be ignorant!
YET ANOTHER RANDOM CHRISTIAN: Yes, we won't be happy until the entire world is forced to think the way we think. We'll shove christianity down everyone's throats whether they want it or not, after all it's our duty to "save" them.
RANDOM CHRISTIAN: Amen brother. George Orwell would be proud. Franz Kafka would be proud. We will realize their most henious nightmares and preach that as gospel. Let the rapture begin.
ANOTHER RANDOM CHRISTIAN: George who?
What exactly are the problems that have plagued electron microscopes for years?
has the potential to provide the same resolution as existing electron microscopes but without many of the problems which have plagued them for years
YES! Finally!!!
Property is theft.
ultrasmooth
Claiming to be pedantic on Slashdot is asking for trouble
Apparently not as thick as the layer of lead in the writer's brain.
The group working at Cambridge has a detailed description: http://www-sp.phy.cam.ac.uk/research/mirror.php3 I was a little surprised to read this as being new. Although the He microscope, as it is envisioned, has not yet been built, the Cambridge group has been working on the idea for a while. I'm not sure how much of an improvement the techniques of the group in the story are - for producing flat mirrors - than what is already being used at Cambridge. The Si surfaces they use are already pretty flat. As far as I understood it the most critical area for development was the detector.
Conservation of angular momentum makes the world go round.
Can we burn this one?
Jack Thompson
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Just blow it up to make it bigger. It's much easier.
There can only be one athiest. Some people are athy, some are athier, but only one can be the athiest.
rj
How is this not Troll? Or is an athiest something I don't know about and not just a stupid misspelling of atheist?