MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Subject: How can nanoscientists pick atoms up and move them about when they are not

Date: Sun Jul 29 06:55:08 2007
Posted by Angela
Grade level: nonaligned School: No school entered.
City: London State/Province: No state entered. Country: UK
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1185717308.Ph
Message:

People doing nanotechnology are often described as ‘moving atoms about’ e.g. 
with ‘tweezers’e.g. in newspapers. Also, images from STMs that I've seen on 
the net make atoms appear as fairly stable round objects. But what you can see 
as the atom’s outer shell should really be the most distant electron from the 
nucleus (never mind the other theories from quantum physics about the funny 
behaviour of matter at this level). So how can nanoscientists pick atoms up 
and move them about when they are not actually ‘hard objects’?


Re: How can nanoscientists pick atoms up and move them about when they are not

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