AN IMAGE OF A SINGLE MOLECULE.

AN IMAGE OF A SINGLE MOLECULE. This link shows the first image of a single molecule, made with an atomic force microscope. I use the word “image” because it is not a photograph. The image is of a pentacene molecule, which has five carbon “rings” which are shaped like hexagons.I can make out the hexagonal shapes of the five “rings” in the image. In other words, the image shows the chemical bonds in the molecule. This article describes some of the implications of the techniques used. This article explains that extreme cold (minus 268 degrees Centigrade) was used to “avoid the effects of stray gas molecules bounding around, or the general atomic-scale jiggling that room-temperature objects experience.”