The human eye is limited in its vision. We cannot see objects much thinner than a human hair (a fraction of a millimeter) or resolve motions quicker than a blink (a tenth of a second). Advances in optics and microscopy over the past millennium have, of course, let us peer far beyond the limits of the naked eye, to view exquisite images such as a micrograph of a virus or a stroboscopic photograph of a bullet at the millisecond it punched through a lightbulb. But if we were shown a movie depicting atoms jiggling around, until recently we could be reasonably sure we were looking at a cartoon, an artist’s impression or a simulation of some sort.

In the past 10 years my research group at the California Institute of Technology has developed a new form of imaging, unveiling motions that occur at the size scale of atoms and over time intervals as short as a femtosecond (a million billionth of a second). Because the technique enables imaging in both space and time and is based on the venerable electron microscope, I dubbed it four-dimensional (4-D) electron microscopy. We have used it to visualize phenomena such as the vibration of cantilevers a few billionths of a meter wide, the motion of sheets of carbon atoms in graphite vibrating like a drum after being “struck” by a laser pulse, and the transformation of matter from one state to another. We have also imaged individual proteins and cells.

14 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 04:20 PM 7/24/10

   If that camera is that good... why didn't you show us some of that stuff? They say that the earth is a living/thinking life form. It sounds like that could apply to the whole universe, so be careful in whom you zap with that laser; it would be me vibrating around somewhere in time through space.

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2. 2. robert schmidt 09:29 PM 7/24/10

   @JamesDavis, "They say that the earth is a living/thinking life form". That was Avatar and it was a movie not reality.

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3. 3. JamesDavis 09:52 PM 7/24/10

   @Robert Schmidt - You are not really into history are you? "The earth is a living/thinking life form." -JamesDavis- was originally spoken by Nicholas Culpeper, the English Physician in 1824.

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4. 4. gregv21 06:15 PM 7/27/10

   Where is the video? I tried the link that it said in the magazine but i got nothing.

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5. 5. mbaskin 04:09 PM 7/28/10

   I also tried the link scientificamerican.com/aug2010/nanomovies ... broken link.

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6. 6. denke42 03:01 AM 7/30/10

   I also tried the URL in the magazine, to which I've subscribed for about 30 years. My guess: you have to pay extra to see.

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7. 7. wannaBeScientist 01:20 PM 7/30/10

   Perhaps a 4-D electron microscope would be a good way of studying relativity - quantum gravity.

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8. 8. George M Bright 12:15 AM 8/4/10

   I also tried to link to nanomovies- no luck.
   How is it known that the laser pulse does not distort the path of electron and produce a false image?

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9. 9. Richard Busch 09:02 PM 8/9/10

   I'd like to see the inner workings of a living animal cell. Is this possible with the 4D electron device?

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10. 10. Richard Busch 09:20 PM 8/9/10

    I'd like to see the inner workings of a living animal cell. Is this possible with the 4D electron device?

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11. 11. billsmith 03:28 PM 8/16/10

    You can see the nanoscale movies here:
    http://ust.caltech.edu/movie_gallery/
    
    The university has put out these press releases:
    http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13310
    http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13207
    
    As one of the actual scientists at the Ultrafast Science and Technology Center, Ahmed Zewail's description is probably a bit more accurate than the university's writer.
    
    Here are some of his articles available for free at PubMed Central
    "Micrographia of the twenty-first century: from camera obscura to 4D microscopy."
    http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1914/1191.long
    "Ordered water structure at hydrophobic graphite interfaces observed by 4D, ultrafast electron crystallography"
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2657438/
    

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12. 12. vladdek 07:19 PM 8/16/10

    @George Bright: Primarily because it's an ELECTRON Microscope?

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13. 13. shahin 12:07 AM 8/17/10

    As an egyptian embryologist I am so proud of such invention , thanks Zewail. I hope this 4D electron device help to discover the mystery of early developmental stages in human, since the exact minute molecular actions and interactions coprised these steps are still unclear , and I suggest to begin with mammalian embryos .
    I am sure that this 4D device will brought us to a new era of science especially biomedical sciences.
    

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14. 14. evaunitzero1 in reply to Richard Busch 10:33 PM 9/7/10

    @ richard busch; no, because electron microscope specimens need to be dead and delicatley prepared. i would love to see it too though!

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