Results tagged “atoms” from 60 Second Science

Okay, once you start smashing or pulling atoms apart, they get pretty exciting, but IBM has just published its finding on just how little force it takes to move an atom: about one-130-millionth of an ounce of force (210 piconewtons) to push a cobalt atom across platinum or only one-1,600-millionth (17 piconewtons) of an ounce of force to shove at across copper.

It takes about 30 billion piconewtons to pick up a penny.

Geeks across the world rejoiced, now able to finish every work out (or gaming session) with a shout of "I hold the power of 130 million cobalt atoms in my hand! What type of guns are these? Yeah, atom-pushing guns."

Anyone? No? Okay, just me.

Continue reading 'Atomic power actually kind of wimpy' >

See that sweetness to the right? It's an actual image of the precise structure of a bridge of atoms that links two gold crystals. It was captured by one of the world's most powerful transmission electron microscopes, called TEAM 0.5 for short, and it was installed yesterday at the University of California-Berkeley.

TEAM can deliver crisp, clear, color-rich images of objects less than half the diameter of a hydrogen atom (that's half a ten-billionth of a meter). It can produce such high-quality images because the beam of energy sent down the column is bolstered by brand new error-correcting technology that allows the user to adjust focus atom by atom. This effectively cuts down on the image noise generally associated with electron microscopes.

(Check out a pic of TEAM after the jump)

Continue reading ''Best. Microscope. Evarrrrrrrr.' captures atomic structures' >