atomic photo
16 Oct
In the spirit of the recent Nobel awarded for the invention of the CCD sensor, here is a “photo” of a molecule of pentacene taken by an IBM lab. (Go to the BBC for details.) It is not a photo in the sense of being made with a camera and light rays, but for me it was one of those teary-eyed gaspy moments when you see something completely new. There is something about a recorded image of some sort that has more impact than a sketch or a model, even though, in this case, it looks pretty much like those plastic models they give you in chemistry courses.
I wanted to share this when I first saw it while in China, but alas, all high profile social networking and blogging sites were blocked (proxies aside), presumably either as a part of pre-anniversary measures to control the tone in the media of the lead up or as a part of control of dissent after the XinJiang incidents. A little unusual since they usually don’t block all of them, but there it is.
