Posted on 02/17/2018 5:06:52 AM PST by Leaning Right
One of the strangest things about the gorgeous photo of an atom that has just won a British science photography prize is that you cannot take a photo of an atom. It is just impossible.
And yet, there it is, a strontium atom, like a little round dot, shining clear as day. The image is called “Single Atom in an Ion Trap.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
So we are seeing the quantum energy from the atom, not the atom itself. Visualizing an atom is impossible, due to the fact that it is so tiny. In order to visualize an object, the object must be larger than wavelengths of light within the visual spectrum.
That little dot is many times larger than the atom itself. If I cared to spend some time at the task, I could figure out exactly how much larger the dot is than the atom... but it's quicker just to type out that I don't want to go to that trouble.
Art is all about marketing, just like politics. In this case, the science is impressive even as you describe it - visualizing the quantum energy from a single atom. However, to win an art prize, the photo has to be presented just right.
> So we are seeing the quantum energy from the atom, not the atom itself. <
I hate to sound like you-know-who, but I guess it all depends on your definition of “see”.
Thought I could make out electrons but cleaned my reading glasses and they went away.....
As always, the headline lies about what the article says.
Headline: “Image of a single strontium atom”
Article: “we can see the glow, without actually seeing the atom itself”
In other words, nothing. We see the glow of atoms all the time - only it’s from billions of atoms. This claims to be from one atom.
An individual atom is much too small to be resolved by the human eye, or any camera, since it is smaller than the wavelength of the light used to photograph it.
In other words, nothing. Hype as usual.
I was thinking the same thing when noticing the metal “plugs” on the left and right.
LOL
Okay, let me get very technical, then.
The electrons within the atom were excited to the next highest energy state through the input of energy. Almost immediately, they jumped back down to their base energy state, giving up the excess energy as a photon packet. That photon packet zipped out and hit some sort of photographic capture medium a few centimeters away. (I do not know what kind of photographic capture medium was used, so will skip a few steps here.) Once a sufficient number of photon packets were captured in this way, an image was made by typical methods--in this case, the image is little tiny pixels shining in various colors (okay, I have no idea how a flat screen functions). The colored photon packets from the flat screen fly across about 40 centimeters (for me, anyway) and enter the eyes, where they interact with pigments in cells of the retina. This causes the optic nerve to send information to the brain, which we then interpret as vision.
There, happy now?
It’s a DOT. Big deal.
I don’t think the headline is so very wrong. After all, we don’t actually see the Sun. We see the “glow” from the Sun.
The article from the source states that the electrode tips are 2 cm apart. That is actually sufficient information to determine how much larger the dot is than the actual atom.
Yeah, I get all that, but if a tree fall in the forest when nobody’s around .......
Bill: "Are you positive?"
Ok ‘Smarter Than All the Rest of Us Guy’.
> There, happy now? <
Well, yes. And I was happy previously. I’ve taught physics at the college level, and I enjoyed your summation.
Neutron walks into a bar and asks how much for a beer. The bartender says for you, no charge.
According to the article, iIts actually an image, not a photo.
Like Obama’s official portrait.
Looks fake...
> Neutron walks into a bar and asks how much for a beer. The bartender says for you, no charge. <
LOL! I know many science jokes, but that’s a new one for me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.