Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the brilliant! dept.

Picture of a Single Atom Wins Science Photo Contest

A remarkable photo of a single atom trapped by electric fields has just been awarded the top prize in a well-known science photography competition. The photo is titled "Single Atom in an Ion Trap" and was shot by David Nadlinger of the University of Oxford.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK today announced the winning photos of its national science photography competition. Nadlinger's grand prize photo shows an atom as a speck of light between two metal electrodes placed about 2mm (0.078in) apart.

From EPSRC:

When illuminated by a laser of the right blue-violet colour the atom absorbs and re-emits light particles sufficiently quickly for an ordinary camera to capture it in a long exposure photograph. The winning picture was taken through a window of the ultra-high vacuum chamber that houses the ion trap.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:21PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:21PM (#637092)

    As someone said in the comments on the article, all we ever see is the light that's reflected.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:31PM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:31PM (#637095) Journal

    all we ever see is the light that's reflected fullstop.

    FTFY - you see the photons originated from the Sun or from a lightbulb without a mirror, don't you? (just don't look with your remaining eye in a laser)

    Some say that hallucinogenics may cause one to see sounds, so the above may need further correction under such circumstances.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:14PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:14PM (#637128) Homepage
      Synaesthesia definitely exists. I've never seen sounds, but I have heard light patterns (that I was creating myself with the aid of a 50 Hz polychromatic source and 2 near-periodic light filters. (OK, a TV showing snooker, and my 2 hands. Oh, and some rather spacey cookies.)
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves