Single Molecule Seen for First Time

[Anaconda]

At the level of the electron a lot of things are theoretical because no one has seen an electron by direct observation, and this has been pretty much the case for even the atom, but it appears a molecule has finally been directly observed.

The headline of the article: Single molecule, one million times smaller than a grain of sand, pictured for first time.

What I find compelling is that the image compares well with the stick and ball model of molecules.

The image was achieved by:

Scientists from IBM used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to reveal the chemical bonds within a molecule.

'This is the first time that all the atoms in a molecule have been imaged,' lead researcher Leo Gross said.

Below is the link to the article with the image and a comparison with a stick and ball model for the same molecule -- the similarity is striking:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -time.html

My question is whether or if this ability to image molcules impacts EU theory at all?

[mharratsc]

I think it just might...

So this detector tip on this Atomic Force Microscope measures "the tiny forces between the tip and the molecule" to produce the image. It was a lone molecule, yet the ends of the molecule are more energetic than the middle.

Why?

They expected to see this:



But what they saw was this:


(Thanks to DailyMail.co.uk for the images)

Notice that the ends of the molecule glow? Why would the ends of the molecule glow, according to standard science?

The reason why I ask is- I just got through re-reading Wal Thornhill's article regarding electric gravity and the subatomic dipolar force being what he thinks is gravity, and here we have this molecule that is all lined up in a perfect straight line with the ends energized... makes me wonder if this doesn't supply some credence to his idea?

Mike H.

[solrey]

Here's a video from IBM describing the process.

I can't tell what the orientation is of the molecule being imaged. Are we looking from above or from the side? It could be significant due to the fact that on one side, (happens to be the bottom of the image), the "lobes" are brighter and fatter, plus there seems to be a very slight egg shape to the hexagonal structure. As if the molecule were being ever so slightly stretched in that direction. Is that an artifact due to the imaging process, or is it due to a stretched atomic dipole?

Might be direct evidence for EMOND.

[Anaconda]

Hi mharratsc:

Thank you for taking the time and effort to produce the images directly onto the forum thread without a link; it always makes for a more compelling thread when the images are right there jumping off the page at the readers

Yes, I noticed the bright edges at the two ends of the molecule, but the model in my mind's eye was insufficient to render an articulable reason or meaning for this property.

(Interesting how "our model" has such a strong influence on how we see things and whether we are able to articulate various observations & measurements or just ignore them, whether by intention or simple lack of "tools" to provide meaning to ourself and others -- of course, we at EU see this mental phenomenon all the time in "modern" astronomy, geology, and atmospheric physics, but it was interesting to see it at work in my own head, nevertheless.)

Thanks for articulating (pointing out) that brightness and suggesting reasons for its significance

Without addressing your ideas, it certaintly suggests there is more energy residing in those locations of the molecule, it would be good to brainstorm reasons for this higher concentration of energy in those locations of the molecule (including the ideas you present Thanks, solrey, for your contribution, I always enjoy reading your thoughts on the various phenomenon )

[jjohnson]

In looking at a visual image, we have to ask ourselves, what is represented by the gray scale or color scale in order to get across the idea? Which of the atomic forces is the CO tip measuring - electrostatic? magnetic? strong or weak forces? local gravity (unlikely)? when you think of a bar magnet being composed of a "chain" of iron molecules all aligned N to S, the N and S poles are expressed mainly at the ends, not unlike the visual representation of the pentacene molecule. The article notes that the CO molecular tip to t the proble was selected becasue it had the least practical electrostatic attraction to the underlying pentacene, so as to avoid adding tip-influence to the measurement process. Less noise, in other words, for a more accurate S/N ratio. So, what ARE we looking at, here? That might need to be answered before conclusions are drawn (or jumped to) about what it means in EU terms.

Jim

[solrey]

Anaconda, here's a description of the image in my response to jjohnson. It's not a visual optical picture sort of image so the glow you see isn't really "glowing", other than in the sense it's glowing with a force of attraction.

jjohnson, check out the video I posted and pay attention to the description. The CO molecule on the tip responds to atomic attraction/repulsion. When the tip is further from the molecule, it's just an outline measuring only the attractive force, when up close, it then also responds to a repulsive force. The result is a processed image representing the strength of the repulsive (darker end of the greyscale) and attractive forces between atoms (lighter end of the scale). It makes sense that the attractive forces show up as lines between atoms. Notice the color topographical style depiction. The red ridges are the lines of attractive force between atoms.
What I was saying about a possible EMOND effect being seen would be valid if the orientation of the probe arm were horizontal and the molecule in the image is actually oriented accordingly, with the bottom/down, top/up.
For whatever reason, there appears to be a stronger force of attraction, along one side, the bottom length, acting on the molecule as a unit.
My question is what is causing that? I believe the molecule was totally isolated so as to not interact with anything else in order to provide a clean dataset, so why the asymmetry in the attractive force? The measured forces seem to be "melting" downward, in the image, ever so slightly.

[mharratsc]

From what I could make out from the video, the one guy stated that the dark coloration was the repulsive force, and the bright was the attractive force (wherein the electron shells of the atoms were actually coming in contact with one another.)

So- the picture that was displayed from that web article probably wasn't the closest and clearest 'picture' of the molecule itself. At one point in the video it showed as close as you can get, and the whole of the molecule seemed very bright (must've been the closest point of proximity of the carbon monoxide tip).

From the collage of pics that they showed in the video, it looks like they were zooming straight down onto the molecules from above, as there was one pic that showed a scattering of the molecules seen from a greater distance, then they zoomed in on one particular molecule in the mix.

I wonder why, during the approach of the tip to the molecule, the attractive force seemed greater on the ends of the molecule than in the middle? If there were a single carbon monoxide molecule on the end of their probe, one would presume (due to curvature) that the closest point of proximity would occur directly in the middle of the molecule? Why did the attractive force grow greater on the ends than in the middle of the molecule?

Some particular characteristic of this molecule that makes it special for the semiconductor industry?

Mike H.

[jjohnson]

Thanks, SolRey; I watched the video ,and it was helpful in describing that the force they were measuring was the van der Waal force, a very small-scale, weak force between atoms in molecules. I wasn't thinking that the image was an image made in visible light, as in the one "glow" reference earlier, but that it was a false-color image (in this case, gray scale in the obtained data, and red/green in the computed force topography ). I agree that the gray scale (which on the video ranged from 0 (white) down to -7 (black) in units I couldn't resolve on my screen, anyway, but possibly Debye units or joules or something appropriate) was measuring the repulsive forces and attractive forces and scaling them by bright = attractive and dark = repulsive or anyway less attractive. At the original (higher) altitude above the sample, the atomic force microscope tip measured an overall attractive force, increasing as the probe was translated horizontally toward the center of the molecular sample, and then relaxing as it continued past the far edge, like an inverted bell curve. At the lower altitude, the polyexclusion principal comes into play and it can define where the forces emanating from the atoms and bonds are located, and their relative strengths, and thus image them in the way the picture shows. I hope I got this right - I think the speaker referred to the van der Waal forces as dark, and the polyexclusion as bright, but it was tad confusing. I can't explain the fine shadings indicating slightly more or less force in certain places, either, other than atoms and bonds.

This gray scale image is already posted on the Wikipedia site under "pentacene", credit to IBM.

Jim

[solrey]

In the video, one of the researchers describes the scanning of an individual molecule from "large heights to small heights". They said the optimum scanning distance for maximum contrast is 0.5nm. I take this to mean that the probe tip scanned back and forth over the molecule at a set distance for each image. The sequence of images, @ 3:23 in the video, is a series of those individual scans, with each successive scanned image at a smaller distance.

I still ask, what is causing the asymmetric force distribution?

[mharratsc]

Ummm... not to derail the thread or anything, but...

Being that both of you (JJ & Sol) are clearly more educated with this stuff than I am, let me bounce a question off of you:

Why is it that we're seeing a "strong attractive force" and a "weak repulsive force" at this molecular level that seems to emulate the strong attractive force and weak repulsive force of standard macrocosmic electromagnetics?
Are EM laws holding true all the way down to the molecular level, or is it just a whacky coincidence?

Appreciate any knowledge you guys could impart!


Mike H.

[solrey]

Howdy Mike.

I kind of goober'd the explanation a bit. It's still based on long range attraction and short range repulsion, though. The van der Waals force is the long range attractive force. When close enough, the Pauli exclusion principle takes over as the repulsive force between the outer electron shells of the pentacene molecules and the outer electron shell of the oxygen molecule on the tip of the probe.

The Pauli exclusion principle is a quantum mechanical principle formulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. It states that no two identical fermions may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously.

From the IBM Press room.

Furthermore, the scientists were able to derive a complete three-dimensional force map of the molecule investigated. “To obtain a complete force map the microscope needed to be highly stable, both mechanically and thermally, to ensure that both the tip of the AFM and the molecule remained unaltered during the more than 20 hours of data acquisition,” says Fabian Mohn, who is working on his Ph.D. thesis at IBM Research – Zurich.

To corroborate the experimental findings and gain further insight into the exact nature of the imaging mechanism, IBM scientist Nikolaj Moll performed first-principles density functional theory calculations of the system investigated. He explains, “The calculations helped us understand what caused the atomic contrast. In fact, we found that its source was Pauli repulsion between the CO and the pentacene molecule.” This repulsive force stems from a quantum mechanical effect called the Pauli exclusion principle. It states that two identical electrons can not approach each other too closely.

Does that help?

I'm too busy to verify, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 0.5nm optimum contrast distance is within reasonable "tolerance" of the sum of the debye lengths of the pentacene atoms plus the oxygen atom on the tip.

[jjohnson]

-and the way the atomic force microscope detects the force is that it is mounted on a cantilever which is deflected up or down as it is translated laterally , resulting in a strain (deflection) of the cantilever which produces a small piezoelectric electric current just like an accelerometer does. This current is then translated into values which vary proportionally with the forces being experienced at the tip, resulting in a data array of the force at each point which readily converts to a "picture" of the forces experienced throughout the back and forth scans covering the sample. Getting the crystal of pentacene cold enough to hold still enough for its portrait was the really hard part, I bet. Excellent nano-work, IBM! What fun - viel Spass, nicht?

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

Jim

[Lloyd]

* The image is derived from data; is it not? If so, can we easily get access to the original data, which I assume are measurements of force?

[earls]

If nothing else, is not having two different equations for two different domains separated by such a minuscule line embarrassment enough?

[solrey]

Lloyd, go here for more images. Besides the two posted by mharratsc (yo Mike H), there is also a topographic force map. Opening the greyscale image reveals the explanation that each pixel in the image corresponds to a data point. The raw data would consist of millions of entries, 80x40x3100, or 9,920,000 to be exact. Comparing the topographic force map with the individual pixels/data points in greyscale might give you an idea of the measured force, which ranges from 0 pN to -120 pN.

jjohnson, yeah, that's how I thought the rig would be designed. I was thinking a horizontal tip arm transferring the lateral forces though a cantilever/fulcrum to magnify the force on the piezoelectric sensor would be the most stable setup. I didn't read anything about the actual mechanism, unless I missed it. Is your description "official" or personal knowledge of how those devices work.
I think horizontal is significant in the fact that if the stronger forces along the bottom of the molecule in the greyscale image, translates to the actual orientation of the physical bottom side, then this might also be one of those "stumble upon" moments that provides some insights into "gravity". Perhaps proof of concept for EMOND?

OK, I'm starting to sound like a broken record. I should just go straight to the source and write to one of the contacts listed in the IBM press room article.