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An Image of a Molecule: WOW!!

John Berry — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:56:17 +0000

The Way We Saw Molecules In The Past - Just A Drawing

Science has always fascinated me. As a teen I assumed that my life would be somehow involved in science. In high school I decided that I would study biology in college and then go from there. Life had other things planned and I never got to college. The fascination with science has never died. And what better time in the progression of scientific discovery that right now?

So now they have developed a method for imagining a molecule. Until now when we wanted to represent a molecule we could only do it with a graphic done by an artist. In our textbooks we would see the typical ball and stick figures that represented one molecule or another. That is one on the left.

But now, scientists at IBM have developed a method to actually image the chemical structure of a molecule. The method is called “non-contact atomic force microscopy.” They focused on a single molecule of pentacene. The molecule is made up of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms.

The result of this procedure is an amazing image of a pentacene molecule.

Pentacene Molecule Imaged By IBM

This is from the IBM supplied description: “The delicate inner structure of a pentacene molecule imaged with an atomic force microscope. For the first time, scientists achieved a resolution that revealed the chemical structure of a molecule. The hexagonal shapes of the five carbon rings in the pentacene molecule are clearly resolved. Even the positions of the hydrogen atoms around the carbon rings can be deduced from the image. (Pixels correspond to actual data points)” Image courtesy of IBM Research – Zurich

IBM Research – Zurich scientists Fabian Mohn, Leo Gross, Nikolaj Moll (standing), Gerhard Meyer and Reto Schlittler (from left to right) in the STM/AFM laboratory. In front of them is the scanning tunneling/atomic force microscope used for the experiments. The team is reviewing the first-principles density functional theory calculations that corroborated the experimental findings of imaging the Pentacene molecule at atomic resolution.

IBM Scientists

You can read more at the IBM Research site: http://www.zurich.ibm.com/news/09/pentacene.html

40 percent of Twitter messages ‘pointless babble’: study

John Berry — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:02:15 +0000

I stole that headline from the original article. Now to add a big “Duh”. Really, they needed to study that? Maybe they did, I would have thought it was closer to 80%. I am guessing, based on conversations I have overheard, that the same number of wireless phone calls are “pointless babble”. I have followed a few people on Twitter and ultimately found that they were a waste of time and a crashing bore. Some are informative, but very few.

The original study can be found at Pear Analytics.

Counterfeit DNA

John Berry — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:23:08 +0000

According to an article in the New York Times: “Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.” And that is not good news.

While the article makes it clear that the ability to do this is not within the grasp of most people, it is still easy enough for “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.” That means that this is within the abilitiy tens of thousands of people. And that is a game-changer for law enforcement.

The good news is that the same company that developed the technique has also developed a test to determine if the DNA is natural or faked. But how long before someone takes the next step and compromises that test?

Giant ’soap bubble’ floating in space

John Berry — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:40:12 +0000

Soap Bubble In Space

It looks like a soap bubble. It is called a planetary nebula. See a bigger picture and technical description at the NASA website: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081113.html

Science fascinates me and I vary from day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, on which branch excites me more. Right now it is astronomy. Unlike so many on both sides of the debate I do not see a battle between a belief in God and the study of science. I may be more simple-minded than some and therefore not able to see the issues properly.

I do not see a battle between my belief that the heavens declare the glory of God and my belief that modern science does a fabulous job of exploring and explaining the world and the heavens.

Read more about it here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327185.100

And an in-depth story on its discovery is The Story Behind the Discovery of “The Cygnus Bubble” PN G 75.5+1.7.