If you've ever taken a chemistry class, you've probably had the thought at least once: how do they KNOW that molecules actually look like they do in diagrams? Traditional microscopes don't have the resolving power to see the smallest of the small. So, are benzene carbon rings really hexagonal, or is your organic chem professor just making you look like a toddler using those tinker-toy models in class?


While it's true that your prof is probably giggling inside watching an auditorium of fumbling undergrads attempt 3, 4-dimethoxybenzoic acid, the exercise is not futile. According to a 2009 paper written by a group of IBM researchers, those chemical structure models appear to be very close to reality, as they managed to take the world's first picture of a molecule.

In this video, Science in Seconds introduces you to this image of pentacene, and talks about how IBM scientists managed to capture this marvel.

<sub>Host: Rheanna Sand

Photo Credits:

AAAS; encyclopedie-universelle.com; engineering.arizona.edu; Alberto Diaspro, Paolo Bianchini, Giuseppe Vicidomini, Mario Faretta, Paola Ramoino and Cesare Usai; CERN; ucvts.tec.nj.us; abyss.uoregon.edu; Sony, Samsung, LG, Vizio.

References:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8225491.stm
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/pentacene/pentacene.htm
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/news/09/pentacene.html</sub>

_{Gross, L., Mohn, F., Moll, N., Liljeroth, P., & Meyer, G. (2009). The Chemical Structure of a Molecule Resolved by Atomic Force Microscopy Science, 325 (5944), 1110-1114 DOI: 10.1126/science.1176210}