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Grainy: An Atom's Shadow Spotted For The First Time

July 9, 2012 / biology, chemistry, damn stop science-ing so hard you're about to break my lab goggles, i guess i can stop carving all these littel toothpick stakes now, interesting, neato, one time i ran so fast i didn't cast a shadow (jk jk it was night time), physics, picture, science, shadow, tiny, who do you think you are Punxsutawney Phil?!?!, why does it look so 8-bit -- i demand a clearer picture!

atom-shadow.jpg

This is a picture of the shadow cast by a single atom, captured by scientists for the first time. How did they do it? Science. Ooooooooor drew straws and the shortest had to sell their soul to the devil. Not worth it, bro!

To get this to work, an atom of Ytterbium was cooled down to just a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero in an ion trap. An illumination source was shined onto the atom, and on the other side of it was a fresnel lens that captured and focused all of the light that made it past the atom. The light that didn't make it past (that the atom absorbed) was what created that perfect little atom-sized shadow.

Pretty neat, right? But you know what the most interesting result of the experiment is? Now we know atoms aren't vampires. I don't know about you, but I know I'm gonna be sleeping like a baby tonight. "Because of this?" No, because I just took a handful of Ambien, YES BECAUSE OF THIS.

Hit the jump for a picture of the setup.

atom-trap-shadow.jpg

Thanks to shannon and Cpt Amazing, one of which tried to tell me it looks like a nipple (it was Cpt Amazing, I don't think he's ever seen one).

There are Comments

  • the setup looks like it was made in powerpoint

  • Looks like the splash screen for a Commodore 64 game.

  • That is pretty interesting. I do wonder if they can pass certain vibrations on to or around the atoms, making a them perform a shadow puppet show. :D

  • Bradley B

    So, all this time atoms and it's shadows are all made from digital pixels - wild

  • Haha! Where is your god now?

  • Kenlin Bros

    Why would a theist girl ask such a question?

  • Atheists are just as bad as religious fanatics in my opinion, they've just swung to the polar opposite. Religion needs to accept it hasn't got it right, science has clearly shown that. Atheists need to accept they don't know everything, we know an infinitesimally small amount compared to what we don't know.
    Try the middle road? Each side has it's benefits.

  • Gee, it was a joke.

  • Clearly spoken from ignorance.

    If you knew even a little bit what atheist is about, you would know that atheism IS taking the middle road, by not believing in God but also not claiming it does not exist.

  • You're thinking of Agnosticism.
    Atheists claim God does not exist.
    Agnostics claim that they cannot know for sure.

  • Again, you're wrong.

    Atheists simply do not believe in God. They never claim god does not exist (or shouldn't) because they simply don't know.
    There is a huge difference between not believing in something, and believing something is false.

    Agnosticism and Gnosticim for that matter, is completely different than atheism and theism. These two "labels" do not contradict each other. Any atheist in essence is an Agnostic Atheist, because he doesn't know for sure (Agnostic) but doesn't, or has no reason to believe.
    On the contrary, almost all Christians in essence are Gnostic Theists because they "know" that God exists.

    tl;dr: You're wrong, atheists don't claim anything.

  • blech

    Definition of ATHEISM
    1
    archaic : ungodliness, wickedness
    2
    a : a disbelief in the existence of deity
    b : the doctrine that there is no deity

    ----------------------------------------------------

    Definition of AGNOSTIC
    1
    : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
    2
    : a person who is unwilling to commit to an opinion about something <political agnostics="">

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I think the english language disagrees with your claim.</political>

  • Tony Stark

    Not sure what's more annoying...bible-beaters or atheists who can't talk about anything but how there is no God.

  • It was a joke.

  • Is that a Higgs Boson joke?

  • Kind of.

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