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Atom Shadow: Scientists In Australia Photograph Shadow Of Single Atom (PHOTO)


Shadow of ytterbium atom.


In this illustration, a ytterbium atom (blue) casts a shadow as it's passed by an orange laser beam.

By Timothy Stenovec
Posted: 07/06/2012 8:24 am Updated: 07/06/2012 11:17 am

It took five years, but researchers at Griffith University in Australia have successfully taken a picture of the shadow of a single atom.

It is the first time an atom's shadow has been photographed [ http://theconversation.edu.au/snapping-an-atoms-shadow-now-thats-a-first-8057 ], Erik Streed, a physics lecturer at the university and a member of the research team, wrote in a post on The Conversation, an Australian news and analysis site.

According to a statement from the university and Streed's blog post [id.], the team was able to create the shadow by focusing a laser beam [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/gu-fpo070312.php ] on an atom of the element ytterbium [ http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele070.html ] that was suspended in a chamber. The atom produced a shadow, which was then captured by a digital camera.

The university said its one-of-a-kind high-resolution microscope--the lens of which focuses light in a way similar to a lighthouse lens [ http://theconversation.edu.au/snapping-an-atoms-shadow-now-thats-a-first-8057 ]--was key in successfully capturing the shadow of the atom.

"By using the ultra hi-res microscope we were able to concentrate the image down to a smaller area than has been achieved before, creating a darker image which is easier to see," Dave Kielpinski, a professor at the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University, said in a written statement [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/gu-fpo070312.php ].

Writing for Cosmos magazine, Renae Soppe noted that this development could eventually lead to safer methods for imaging living things [ http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/5756/scientists-capture-world%E2%80%99s-first-atom-shadow ].

"This is important if you want to look at very small and fragile biological samples such as DNA strands where exposure to too much UV light or X-rays will harm the material," Streed said in the written statement [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/gu-fpo070312.php ]. "We can now predict how much light is needed to observe processes within cells, under optimum microscopy conditions, without crossing the threshold and destroying them."

It's been a big week in particle physics. On Wednesday, scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, announced they had found a particle consistent with the Higgs boson [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/04/cern-discovery-higgs-boson-subatomic-particle_n_1648354.html ].

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/06/atom-shadow-photo-image-australia_n_1652440.html [with comments]

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