Feeling is Seeing
Instruments that see objects smaller than the wavelengths of visible light have been developed to explore the nanoscale. Electron microscopes, which illuminate specimens with beams of electrons instead of photons, and atomic force microscopes (AFM), which feel out the geography of a molecule like a finger running over a carved surface, are foremost in this toolkit. Both require the interpretation of a computer to produce an image recognizable to us. To feel the gradations and valleys of atoms, the “finger” of the atomic force microscope must be very delicate indeed. The inverted mountain in this image is in fact the silicon probe of an AFM, as photographed by an electron microscope. The tip is only a few atoms thick.
From the book No Small Matter via SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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