What do molecules look like?
Leave a CommentIn chemistry class, we have all had to draw (and have been tested on) the schema of molecules. Recently scientists at UC Berkeley have been able to image a single molecule and to see it rearrange its atomic bonds. The resulting AFM images, look a lot like those little stick drawings I referred to.
A ringed, carbon-containing molecule, shown both before and after it has rearranged itself, with the two most common reaction products included. The scale bars measure 3 angstroms, or three ten-billionths of a meter, across. Image and Caption: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley
I think the images are amazing and elegant. There are more images here at WIRED Magazine.
This breakthrough was described in Science in May 30, 2013.