Each Dot in This Image is a Single Molybdenum or a Sulfur Atom

Using a transmission electron microscope, scientists at Cornell University have broken the record for highest-resolution microscopy:

Publishing in Nature this July, they used their scope to take the highest resolution images to date. To do this, they had to create special lenses to better focus the electrons, sort of like “glasses” for the microscope, he says. They also developed a super-sensitive camera, capable of quickly registering single electrons. Their new images show a razor-thin layer, just two atoms thick, of molybdenum and sulfur atoms bonded together. Not only could they distinguish between individual atoms, they could even see them when they were about only 0.4 angstroms apart, half the length of a chemical bond.

Sophia Chen of Wired has the story

Image credit: David Muller/Cornell University