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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.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:29PM (2 children)
As someone who is a fairly avid amateur photographer I am wondering how that image was captured as the article is fairly light on details. If I had to guess it probably is either a HDR image with a regular exposure for most of the scene and then an exposure for the atom, or maybe a flash was used to expose for the equipment with the rest of the long exposure to get the atom. Either way seems like it would work but I would love to find out more.
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(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:25PM
I saw that too but it still doesn't explain if it was a single long exposure or a regular exposure with the flashes combined with a long exposure for the atom. The gelled flashes look to be a blue one and a orange one, it makes for some nice illumination of the 2 sides of the trap.
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