Wow....

Although it looks like some kind of Sci-Fi snake, that’s actually an extreme close-up of the sharpest man-made object ever. The photo is a field-ion microscope image of the tip of a very sharp tungsten needle. Each semispherical globular shape is an individual atom. The longer shapes are traces—like comet tails—of the atoms as they moved while being photographed.


This photo, made by researcher Moh’d Rezeq working with Robert Wolkow at the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology, illustrates how powerful microscopes assist nanotechnologists in exploring, altering, and improving materials at nanoscale. As for the needle itself, its sharpness can aid its role as an ultraprecise electron emitter—a key process as nanotechnologists work on creating everything from ultrastrong, steel-like alloys to hard drive materials that can rapidly expand storage capacities.

—Sebastian Rupley