Single molecule's stunning image

BBC ^ | 8/28/09 | Jason Palmer

[sig226]

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.

[sig226]

I looked in the trap.

[KarlInOhio]

My question is, how did they get the molecule to stay still?

Usually, my molecules keep pouncing, or jumping at strings, or stalking a shadow.

Just pop them into the freezer at -450°F. That usually calms down both molecules and kittens.

[4Speed]

ping

[sig226]

If they can do this, they can synthesize a molecule to meet theoretical criteria for semiconductor properties they need, then image what they made to see if it is what they wanted.

[KarlInOhio]

They're breeding!

[envisio]

Cool.
Over my head, but cool.

[the invisib1e hand]

It’s a “single molecules” meet-up.

[frithguild]

Here is another view - interesting how the hydrogen atoms are brighter than the carbon.

[Lazamataz]

OMG

THE

HORROR

I put kitty in the freezer

AND SHE SHATTERED

THE

HORROR

THE

HORROR

[mylife]

That sumb*tch turns up everywhere!

[Shimmer1]

interesting

[aft_lizard]

Fantastic. Having taken many semesters of organic and biochemical classes you always ask “How do you really know what they look like”. But here it is, exactly as I have been taught.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

“My question is, how did they get the molecule to stay still?”
Very good question. Molecules don’t stay still (except at a temperature of absolute zero). Also, one is tempted to ask if the molecules are smaller than the waves of light that are used to photograph them, because that would make it impossible to see them.

[sig226]

You have a cavity.

[dfwgator]

“Did you tell him about the Twinkie?”

[aft_lizard]

It’s very important, especially for organic chemistry. You are taught a very specific way to draw rings and other structures in a specific way and this photo reinforces what we theorized.

[dfwgator]

It’s a “single molecules” meet-up.

"Hey baby, wanna bond?"

[Lazamataz]

Not if you imaged the molecule with new MicroPhotons^TM.

Twice the light, one hundredth the size! Think Green! Think... MicroPhotons^TM

[sig226]

Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Physics Instructor
Illinois Central College

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It takes “seveners” to ask those questions we wish we had asked in graduate school. The “size” of atomic and sub-atomic particles loses its meaning, because these “particles” behave as though they are waves, or wave packets. So “size” becomes kind of “squishy”. However, with that caveat, the “classical” radius of a “free” electron is taken to be about 3x10^-15 meters, and the “classical” radius of a “free” proton is taken to be about 1x10^-15 — only about 1/3 the radius of the electron. However, the “classical” radius of a hydrogen atom consisting of 1 proton and 1 electron, the Bohr radius, is about 5x10^-9 meters about one million times the radius of either component particle.

I do not know that anyone really thinks of quarks and other sub atomic particles as having a particular “size”, in fact their masses are usually given in energy units of c^2 from the Einstein relation E = mc^2.

[aft_lizard]

Benzene rings are highly stable, it’s very easy to see why they chose this. As far as light goes all you would need is light in the visible spectrum, in fact that would be preferable as the radiation is weak and wouldn’t break the rings.