The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for the first time, say researchers.
The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar techniques – but the new method even shows up chemical bonds.
Understanding molecular structure on this scale could help in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly electronics or even drugs.
This is astonishing. The things we could make, understanding these structures.
It is the same group that in July reported the feat of measuring the charge on a single atom.
Made me think of reboot’s paper.
BBC
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heeey, that’s pretty cool. so now we know what …um… they look like?
how is this going to do anything for science other than make for some cool wallpapers on my computer?
What? That’s not enough for you?
I demand something exciting.
Organic Buckyballs?
I’m wondering how they did this. light is literally too big for atoms.
“In both cases, a team from IBM Research Zurich used what is known as an atomic force microscope or AFM. ”
reading the article might help 😉