First Images of a Single Molecule

Fantastic news from the world of cutting-edge science today:

Thanks to specialised microscopes, we have long been able to see the beauty of single atoms. But strange though it might seem, imaging larger molecules at the same level of detail has not been possible – atoms are robust enough to withstand existing tools, but the structures of molecules are not. Now researchers at IBM have come up with a way to do it.

via Microscopes zoom in on molecules at last – tech – 28 August 2009 – New Scientist.

We’ll talk more about how incredible this is when we get to molecules in a few lessons.