Picture of Atoms

I thought it was time for an “extreme macro zoom” photo… aka, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The distance between each white dot is the inter-atomic distance. The blur on the left is amorphous GaAs, and the region on the right was recrystallized by in-situ annealing.

This was in a pile of photos from a materials science research paper I wrote in 1986 (which won a research award back in the day).

I manually developed the film and used “hand dodging” on the print exposure to compensate for lighting imbalances.

39 responses to “Picture of Atoms”

Paul Watson

Sep 21, 2004 at 5:58 pm

And I am a dope for believing you… right? 😀

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angry shock

Sep 22, 2004 at 12:51 am

ahhhhh… emmmmmm…errrrrrrrr…

Would you … repeat? Didn´t follow you…

From "I tought it was…"…

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jurvetson

Sep 22, 2004 at 2:48 am

Paul: Nope. This is not a hoax or photoshop job

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angry shock

Sep 23, 2004 at 4:10 pm

[pout]

…mmm…

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*ivo*

Oct 22, 2004 at 4:05 pm

"aka, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM)"

I will never look at macro photography in the same way again.

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The Rocketeer

Nov 23, 2004 at 2:35 pm

It looks like an army of nanobots
ready to replicate.

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jurvetson

Nov 23, 2004 at 6:32 pm

Rocketeer: that’s a funny sign!

My advice to you: augment early and often. (a rocket head may not be enough.)

Here is the conclusion from an analysis of the prospect of Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators:

"The smallest plausible biovorous nanoreplicator has a molecular weight of ~1 gigadalton and a minimum replication time of perhaps ~100 seconds, in theory permitting global ecophagy to be completed in as few as ~10^4 seconds. However, such rapid replication creates an immediately detectable thermal signature enabling effective defensive policing instrumentalities to be promptly deployed before significant damage to the ecology can occur."

So…. look for any indication of global warming. It’s a sign.

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dcJohn

Mar 31, 2005 at 4:09 am

holy cow, I think you’re introducing the new genre of extreme/x-macro.

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The Rocketeer

Apr 12, 2005 at 5:57 pm

Steve, let me introduce you to a research professor at UNM, Mike H., who goes by the name SportsCliche here on flickr. He’s got similar interests that you and I share and would be a great contact for you.

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sillydog

May 5, 2005 at 8:01 am

the apparent "stripes" are caused by tunneling?

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jurvetson

May 5, 2005 at 4:36 pm

Those are stacking faults in the crystal lattice. Imagine each atom is a ping pong ball and you are trying to arrange them on a table to be as close together as possible. There is an optimally tight packing which would have a regular structure across the whole surface (and in 3D). But if you start "crystallizing" from several places simultaneously, you will meet at various interfaces with grain boundaries or dislocations, stacking faults, and bundles. I marked an interesting bundle in the Note on the picture.

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roschler

Jul 22, 2005 at 9:14 pm

Holy Quarks & QueeQueg!

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Tampen

Jul 26, 2005 at 8:20 pm

That’s proof of life on Mars, isn’t it ?

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BillyWarhol

Jul 30, 2005 at 5:16 am

interesting*

;))

does this affect the string theory*

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Mr. Physics

Sep 3, 2005 at 11:41 am

Excellent image.

In what ways does HRTEM differ from STM? That is, does it work on a different principle? I am not familiar with HRTEM. Thanks!

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jurvetson

Sep 3, 2005 at 4:51 pm

thanks…. STM has a scanning tip near the subject of study and TEM uses an e-beam column that hits the subject (wikipedia entry). The HR prefix refers to the high-resolution (atomic scale) imaging mode.

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UBopp

Sep 10, 2005 at 6:59 am

Wow, am I ever stupid.

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Drift Words

Sep 28, 2005 at 9:26 pm

It’s interesting that even in the amorphous region, there is still structure at the smaller scales. I understood every word of your description, but I don’t know why this substance *wants* to be a cystal and a bucket of Lego couldn’t care less. So this image has the ability to induce apparent stupidity at all scales.

(The reason will be do to with the shape of potential energy vs configuration. Assembled Lego is a high-energy state.)

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UBopp

Sep 30, 2005 at 4:38 am

Wow, you must be really smart…

–The Anencephalic Community

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moon_dreamr

Nov 3, 2005 at 4:13 pm

ubopp lol Good to see I am not the only one that missed most of what the other posts said lol

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boring fact

Jan 25, 2006 at 4:27 pm

This has been a life long interest of yours, (as well as macro photography) thank you for sharing some of this wisdom (unfortunately the link did not work for me)

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jurvetson

Jan 25, 2006 at 6:18 pm

thanks…. I just fixed the link… It’s a fun ditty…. UBopp will love it. 😉

In short, the paper calculates that the maximum speed that self-replicating nanobots could eat the Earth is 2.78 hours. But they take comfort in the notion that this generates a lot of heat, which could alert “defensive measures.”

Drift Words: I don’t think you can ascribe intentionality to atoms… A similar confusion results if you say genes want to replicate.

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angry shock

Jan 25, 2006 at 9:05 pm

In other terms, DriftWords, Steve said: "Don´t get me started on the Intentionality thing…"

LOL! 😀

I do understand your point and share the perplexity. 😯

Still nobody can´t give us a satisfactory answer about that. Intentional or unintentional? That´s the question. Particle or wave?… that´s another cool one too.

As Freeman Dyson said: "The laws of nature are constructed in such a way as to make the universe as interesting as possible." [more]

Btw, that article is interesting for all of you here, but specially to you Steve, for the subjects discussed, how they unfold, and most of all for they were discussed 8 years ago. Great to read it in retrospective under the lens of what finally happened and how. I guess you won´t agree with freeman too much at certain specific points ;)… but I sense you both share similarities in your avantgarde and open view of today and tomorrow. The mind of those who dreaming up the future, are creating it.

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victorious ticket

Jan 25, 2006 at 10:51 pm

I prefer this:

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Wontolla65

Mar 20, 2006 at 1:00 pm

It remembered me of photo’s of muscle tissue. (striped muscles)

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jurvetson

Mar 21, 2006 at 2:31 am

Wontolla: Yeah… We even called it NanoCorinthian Leather in the nanocar spoof (see the bottom half of that page)….

poo-man: thanks. Both were tough shots with spots! (but being under water with the Rays was a lot warmer than the liquid nitrogen bath used to get the shot above)

Alieness: thanks for the link. Dyson has some very thought-provoking ideas…. When he says " I define an interesting universe as one that is friendly to life, and especially one that produces lots of variety" it reminds me of the anthropic principle (and the Selfish Biocosm hypothesis that I blogged about)

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enenzi

Jun 10, 2006 at 9:07 pm

that is something that really speaks to the (almost) scientist like me : ) well done : )

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UBopp

Jun 14, 2006 at 3:23 am

No, wait, you guys are really just pulling my leg, right? If not, is there a mag wheel option for the nanocar?

–The Self-centered Anencephalic Community

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jurvetson

Jun 14, 2006 at 4:00 pm

Yes, they are very popular, but we couldn’t do mag wheels in the tradiitonal sense. The problem with macro mag wheel deign is the chrome. At the nano scale, hexavalent chromium gets Erin Brockovich all worked up.

So, we went with "mag" as in mag lev… You’ll notice the car floats a bit in the photos.

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borealnz

Jan 30, 2007 at 2:54 am

Amazing! I doubt if we will see a more macro macro in this theme!! It looks like a piece of worn fabric to me though 🙂
Thanks for sharing in our Non-nature macros theme at
The World Through My Eyes

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PatL

Jan 30, 2007 at 6:03 pm

Aren’t all our shots actually pictures of atoms? Hmmm… 😉

Non-nature macros theme at
The World Through My Eyes

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mbanks

Jan 31, 2007 at 6:53 pm

Took the words right out of my mouth……besides I couldn’t add anything to this HRTEM speak of which I know nothing of. 🙂
Other than like your picture of atoms.

Non-nature macros theme at
The World Through My Eyes

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RobertFrancis

Feb 1, 2007 at 5:27 am

My first take (before reading) was that this was a close up of some fabric. Glad I took a second look.

—
Seen in a discussion "Non-Nature Macro" in The World Through My Eyes (?)

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Sebastian-

Mar 9, 2008 at 4:27 pm

Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Science in pictures, and we’d love to have your photo added to the group.

—
Found in a search. (?)

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-ytf-

Jun 6, 2008 at 3:07 am

What is the element?

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jurvetson

Jun 6, 2008 at 4:13 am

Gallium Arsenide (GaAs)

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Lake Fred

Jul 16, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Your photo is anything but ordinary! Please add this nice photo to: Un0rdinary

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-ytf-

May 21, 2013 at 3:37 am

Someone gave me some bucky balls the other day. The way they arrange depending on their polarities makes me think of this photo.

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fotohama

Jul 21, 2015 at 1:04 pm

Great………

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Picture of Atoms

39 responses to “Picture of Atoms”

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