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Article: Making waves: atom microscopes.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 1, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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QUANTUM theory, like many of the world's best religions, says that everything has a dual nature. Things such as electrons, which were first perceived as particles, also behave like waves. Things like light, which muscled their way into physics in the guise of waves, can equally be thought of as particles. This means that if a job (such as building a microscope) requires waves, an engineer can turn to either electrons or light to do it. He may soon have another possibility. By reviving a half-forgotten 19th-century idea, some German scientists believe they can push quantum mechanics to its logical conclusion and design a microscope which makes its images using the wavings ...