How Can You See an Atom?

This week Reactions takes a close up look at the science of how we can see an atom. Since ancient Greek times, philosophers and scientists have tried to figure out what an atom looks like. For a couple thousand years, humans could only speculate on the structure and other properties of the smallest unit of matter. It wasn't until the 1980s that chemists could see individual atoms. Bestselling author Sam Kean takes us through the nearly 2,400-year quest to see the atom in a new episode of our "Legends of Chemistry" series.

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Credits:
Animation: Easy Explain Video
Writer/Host: Sam Kean
Scientific/historical consultants:
Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Lead Writer: Noel Waghorn
Executive Producer: Adam Dylewski

[RafaelRabinovich]

The atoms of the philosophers are not what modern scientists understand by that name. Democritus described not only essential particles, but a-tomic, so small that cannot be divided.
Atoms, as it turns to be, are divisible, and thus they are not truly atomic, in the meaning of the Greek root.
Democritus' speculated atoms are more likely Plank's quanta.

[mikesousa]

Always wanted to see atoms playing jump rope! Thanks made my day!

[joshhooper]

You put in so much effort to your videos!! You deserve 1 million + subs

[plcprofessor]

Excellent video...and production. One of the red herrings encountered with learners is whether or not you can "see" an atom, whether or not the human eye can discern interaction between light and matter with or without the aid of optics. At the "atomic" level; presence, structure, character, behavior and interaction can be detected and as a consequence, the results can be visualized, imagined and expressed graphically in two or three dimensions. Your animation does well to illustrate why you cannot "see" and atom. The illustration of an atom enlarged to the size of a stadium and the nucleus a size of a pea in the center of the field and the electrons as numbered grains of sand doing ellipses at the speed of light further demonstrates that even if you could "get small", you would still not be able to "see" the atom.

[kathyayani]

Man:how to see real electrons in an atom
Heisenberg:j want to know your location

[ThePhysicsConnection]

Really amazing how we can actually see atoms these days. We've come a long way

[Jeffrey]

3:57 The first picture of an atom, the Iridium atom, was done with an Ion Microscope.
I remember seeing a picture of this in a TIME LIFE science book from the late 1960's.
The Iridium atoms looked like round dots surrounded with concentric rings bunched together in a geometric pattern. The image was very two dimensional.
What the atom looks like, is whatever reality we impose on it - - that's how things work at the atomic & subatomic level - - in our effort to observe them we change them.

[aperez]

thank you so much on the lesson on atoms and for the emancipation proclamation.

[Deno]

They deserve credit. Their work was BASED on Rosalind Franklin's work. If she could have built the model first she would have.

[eatmorenachos]

The production level of this video reminds me of the new "Cosmos" series--wish they'd make more of them!

[undefinedvariable]

Very well produced video man, credit to you and everyone involved.

[checkeraka]

OK I HAVE A QUESTION!

If these atoms could only be detected through a device that picks up on tiny size differences isn't it safe to say that these atoms are actually more of like a blobbish lil thing?? Or perhaps it is such a small thing that our minds can only understand it through a form of perspective, meaning atoms have a set of known constants (laws) about them AND a set of variables about them? I mean like although schools teach the atom to be one thing isn't there inevitably DIFFERENT perspectives on what the atom can be?

Hope you read this..

[alejandramcrostie]

Saved my life! Especially with my test coming up! Thanks you!!

[tomhummel]

Very nice of you to display the original text! Hearing lost!

[charlottevictoriamurakami-]

Thank you! That made the topic soooo easy to understand.

[StargateMax]

I heard that the atoms don't even take any physical form until a person is knowingly looking to see them.

[JibHyourinmaru]

tomorrow i got chemistry test and i just cover chapter 1, 6 more to go and i stumble to this video. after this i want go to sleep. just pray for tomorrow test :((

[TomRussle]

It's hard to realize how tiny an atom is, but even harder to realize how tiny are the subatomic particles compared to the atom. and even harder to realize how tiny a quark is.

[potawatomi]

Excellent video and very well narrated.

[lbochtler]

To my knowledge, you can also use a transmission electron microscope to view atoms. Though it needs to be a high resolution type. (and use phase contrast if im not mistaken).

Its also possible to view atoms using a scanning electron microscope, as hitachi proved with their new 1MV SEM