In a scientific breakthrough that could have major implications for medicine and technology, IBM Corp. researchers say they’ve found a way to not just look at clusters of atoms but, for the first time, look inside them.
Scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in California say the technique is the next step toward building new types of microscopes that can see the structure of individual atoms in three dimensions.
With such a tool, they say, researchers could potentially push into new realms of nanotechnology that might let semiconductor engineers create even smaller and more powerful computer microprocessors or help biotech researchers develop new types of drugs.
“This would allow scientists to study the atomic structures of molecules – such as proteins – which would represent a huge breakthrough in structural molecular biology,” said Dan Ru gar, manager of nanoscale studies at IBM.
Now that IBM researchers have developed a way to examine the structures of small groups of atoms, their next goal is to fine-tune the device to see the insides of individual atoms.
Such a microscope might still be years away, Rugar cautioned, but the new technology is a solid step toward such a microscope.
Seeing the structures and exact locations of specific atoms within the tiny strands of elements used to build nanometer- sized electronic circuits could significantly aid in the design and manufacture of semiconductors.
Similarly, the ability to see the detailed atomic structure of proteins, the building blocks of life, could be instrumental in developing new types of drugs or identifying the causes of diseases.
“If you know the structure of a molecule (such as those in viruses or proteins), you can start to think about new drugs” designed specifically for them, said John Marohn, a Cornell University researcher who focuses on nanoscale microscopy. “If not, you sort of have to throw everything you’ve ever made at them and see what happens.”
