Electron Strobe Makes Movies of Atoms

holy_calamity writes "Some grainy black and white movies are receiving rave reviews from scientists. They are taken by a new microscope which, thanks to a 'strobing' electron gun, can image movement at sub-nanometer scales. Until now, only still images that smeared out movement were possible at such scales. The press release notes, 'The researchers first blasted the sample with a pulse of heat. The heated carbon atoms began to vibrate in a random, nonsynchronized fashion. Over time, however, the oscillations of the individual atoms became synchronized as different modes of the material locked in phase, emerging to become a heartbeat-like "drumming."' Further details and a few animations are available at Caltech's site."

Comments

Mmmm

[bi$hop]

"The researchers first blasted the sample with a pulse of heat." That's what she said.

Genre?

[bobdotorg]

Over time, however, the oscillations of the individual atoms became synchronized as different modes of the material locked in phase, emerging to become a heartbeat-like "drumming."

Clearly it's orgy porn.

Re:Atomic pr0n?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why... do you finally want your chance in the adult film industry?

Very import research

[moteyalpha]

This is very exciting to see the possibility that some of the mechanisms of protein folding and DNA protein interaction might be discovered with this technology. It might be invaluable in determining how a prion causes its damage.The rate at which this technology is changing seems to beat Moore's law. I see that graphene for memory has hit 10nm now and may become 3D, which will make a very large factorial change to the scale of memory.

Re:Very import research

[replicant108]

graphene for memory has hit 10nm now and may become 3D, which will make a very large factorial change to the scale of memory.

More info here: http://www.physorg.com/news146497821.html

Not having an experience with this field....

[carterhawk001]

Can someone tell me what in these movies is actually an atom? I have no doubt the images are very important, but it'd be nice to know where the important bits are.

Heisenberg?

[pub_tib]

So..since we can now see an atom's position in space and time does this do anything to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle? I know the principle basically says that when you measure (take pictures of?) the atom that you're moving it in some small unknown way, so what are we really getting a picture of, where it is or where it was? Can we ever actually be more certain, or is Heisenberg's work safe?

Re:Heisenberg?

[jamesh]

I think the uncertainty principal is still safe. What they are doing is equivalent to what they've been able to do before, only fast enough to give an impression of motion.

If you think about measurement at that scale as being equivalent to throwing tennis balls at a basketball and looking at where the tennis balls end up to calculate where the basketball must be, then even if you throw more tennis balls you are still affecting the basketball in an unpredictable way.

Re:Heisenberg?

[Anonymous Coward]

heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies to subatomic particles, e.g. electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.

It's rubbish

[littleghoti]

transmission electron spectroscopy does not have atomic resolution - the title is misleading. The best a TEM can manage is diffraction patterns from ordered regions.

It actually applies to everything.

[The Creator]

It's just that the bigger something is, the less significant the uncertainty is.