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Asked by to Ian on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: What is the largest microscope you have used?
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Ian Hands-Portman answered on 17 Mar 2014:
A synchrotron – the newest one is Diamond – Synchrotrons are little sisters to the LHC but instead of colliding particles they race electrons round a giant ring ( 96m ) at immense speeds.
The electrons give off some of their energy in the form of incredibly bright light – including X-rays that we shone through crystals of virus. By collecting the patterns the X-rays made after going through the crystals ( and after a lot of maths I don’t understand ) we were able to see the individual atoms that made up the viruses.
Comments
wkc19 commented on :
largest one i ever see was on Google or power point. and it took pitchers of really small stuff like a cell.
Ian commented on :
The ‘scopes I usually use are about 3 meters tall and weigh a few tons so they’re pretty hefty pieces of equipment