Courtesy of Microcosmos ISBN 0 521 30433 4

© Cambridge University Press 1987

fig. 7.

ATOMS

The smallest unit of matter that can be imaged my microscopy today is the atom. The use of high resolution electron microscopy or HREM enables the scientist to study the neat lines and rows of atoms arranged in their unit cells. The world of atomic level microscopy is bathed in hyperbole. Imaging an atom at a magnification of x 100 million is equivalent to observing from Earth the golf ball that Neil Armstrong hit on the moon. The microscopists at the forefront of high resolution imaging are now trying to read the golf ball’s number!