What you can only see under a scanning electron microscope

[@soaringvulture]

Now wait a minute here. Looking at a nearby penny, I can measure the space between the pillars of the Lincoln Memorial. It's about 1mm. On the screen in the video, it's about 50mm between the pillars. That's only 50X and any half-decent USB microscope can do 50X just fine. You don't even need a good optical microscope. You use an SEM when you need 5000X or more; then they're worth their weight in gold (which is probably what that Zeiss costs).

[@fredfonebone5108]

Yeah, I’m not so sure that was the best demonstration they could have come up with. I was expecting to see a micron-sized wart on Lincoln’s nose or something.

[@seemoretoys5944]

I could see that with an off the shelf video microscope from China. Weak IBM... Show me the atoms.

[@xinfuxia3809]

Jewelry loupe is good enough

[@johngraves6878]

Exactly what I was going to say. Hey, you beat me to it.

[@stargazer2504]

I was gonna say- Yeah that ain't a very good image of the penny... what are we looking at???

[@caseytwill]

Like using an F1 car to demonstrate backing out of your garage

[@residuejunkie4321]

*I was seeing this with the naked eye all my life. What's the big deal?*

[@MrChingles]

Word

[@BryanTorok]

I was thinking this was not such a great thing to use as an example of the capabilities of the machine. Even if you need some help, a 4x magnifying glass or the camera in a decent cell phone will show you Lincoln. My guess is that this was written by someone in the marketing department who doesn't really do math. They wanted something small but common and easily understood.

[@serenitytrek]

Omg! 😱 Your eyes are naked? 😚🤭🙃

[@thetapper61]

Waited 3 1/2 minutes for you to show a millisecond of a shot of him sitting down in the back of penny

[@zlcoolboy]

I just skipped all of that jazz

[@BigChungus378]

You're not a science nerd, and it shows 😂

[@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin]

ALWAYS. READ. THE. COMMENTS. FIRST. You just saved me 3 1/2 minutes. 😉

[@migzz7976]

I got up to do something and when I came back I caught it.

[@hlcepeda]

@@migzz7976 Did that "something" involve... _LOOKING FOR A PENNY?!!_ 😁

[@larryfisher7056]

My dad got out a magnifying glass in 1959 to show a 10 year old me Lincoln in the memorial.

[@davidevans3227]

..was thinking he could see that with the ordinary microscope, surely..? but like your little story, if you had children i hope you showed them! 🙂 x

[@GySgt_USMC_Ret.]

Nice memory!

[@spvillano]

@@davidevans3227 well, if one has an electron microscope, everything is a nail.

[@davidevans3227]

@@spvillano hi, took me a few minutes! but, yeah i get that.. : -)

[@thomastaylor6699]

The Lincoln memorial penny came out in 1959. It was on every penny up until Lincoln's 200th birthday, and then a set of 4 commertive penny's came out.

[@william.youare6736]

Really, Lincoln sitting in the Memorial on the back of the penny is much clearer and better viewed with a magnifying glass that an electron microscope.

[@david9783]

Exactly what I was thinking. The SEM made the engraving look muddy.

[@cnrspiller3549]

As a lab assistant I got to spend hours on an SEM photographing, or scanning thousands of leaf sections. I used to sneak in foreign objects to look at up close for my own amusement. I once put in a dead bee I found on the windowsill. I scanned its leg joints which was really cool. I'd even go as far as to say, it was the bee's knees (I made that corny joke back then too). I also scanned his eyelashes. Did you know bees have eyelashes? I did not. Did you know that a bee's eyelashes are conical and splined along their length? SEMs pick up insane detail. The intricacies of this mundane creature's body blew my mind. Fun times for a geek like me.

[@anantakesharipanda4085]

I can listen to you for hours if not days.

[@rogerking7258]

Sure, this isn't the most challenging test for a SEM, but it's relatable to something people are familiar with. What impressed me most was just how much information was conveyed without confusion and with so few words.

[@RinaldiMeteoric]

For the record 2 nanometers its 0.002 microns. It also it would be interesting to hear if with this machine you have to dope the sample with metal or if it can also view organic matter without the need to coat the element.

[@snifrbelin]

I was thinking the same thing. He added one zero to many by mistake.

[@JohnVance]

@@snifrbelin Yep, you'd have to use a TEM to get close to 2 angstrom resolution!

[@Muonium1]

@@JohnVance actually there are a few SEM units available now that use highly monochromatic electron beams that can approach a couple angstroms resolution, and are nearly capable of resolving atoms, such as Hitachi's SU9000II

[@JohnVance]

@@Muonium1 That’s cool as hell! My info is out of date by a decade at least 🙂

[@MarkEmerAndersonII]

Not easily - I imaged organic substrates in a very similar scope and you would get surface charging that would throw off the image. Sputtering just a little bit of platinum would fix it usually, but that could sometime mess up features.

[@pcorf]

I love how the room has the sound deadening around it. SEM's also need a solid and stable floor beneath them to minimize vibrations as mentioned.

[@magran17]

Fundamental research in physics, mathematics and chemistry is why I support IBM. Keep up the great work.

[@AdrianBoyko]

Support them how? I worked there for a couple years and it was awful! For every cool scientist you see at IBM there are a thousand other miserable engineers.

[@paulteller8383]

After waiting through this video, I was way disappointed to see what an ordinary magnifying glass would show.

[@AWSVids]

Yeah, I thought we were gonna be seeing like the molecular make-up of the copper in Lincoln's nose or something.

[@tkeo12]

IBM have seen better days

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Yes! My stacks of pennies I go through in my change has me keeping really good strikes from over the years and I can clearly see far better detail with my reading glasses even.

[@shillcreativeworkshop]

i Agree

[@runnininthe80s84]

Right, I can see Lincoln better with just my eyes.

[@paulkocyla1343]

Dude sitting there, minding his business, and is suddenly choked by a vacuum and bombarded with electrons.

[@G6JPG]

Yes, I had a friend who used to refer to it as "sitting in his shed at the end of his garden [that's "yard" to USians]".

[@llornkcor8880]

In John's "booth", no less.

[@TheRealBambihooves]

😂😂😂

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

We should have seen his eyes bulge. So that's why copper is reddish... "Get your ass to Mars..."

[@garethdavies2538]

I spent about 40 years of my life looking at SEM screens, chiefly in failure analysis of aerospace and IC device failures. Invaluable tool, especially when combined, as is usual, with EDS.

[@Bettinasisrg]

"I worked on silicon 25 years ago".... and I'm not going to say what I'm working on now" Thanks for that informative video!

[@TopdogGameboy]

Lol you can see it better with the naked eye than that blurry grainy black and white rendering of what the laser thinks it sees. That's almost as bad as the NASA pictures. It's rendering from computer inputs I mean even just the quick regular camera shot of the penny gave you a much more focused and clear image.

[@NikoVivo-r6h]

😅😅😅

[@HotspotsSoutheast]

When I was in high school I used to take the point of a compass used to draw circles and using a lens from a movie projector write love letters to my girlfriend on a penny. You couldn’t see any of it without a magnifying glass.

[@johnnyxmusic]

Nice!

[@20Prosperity12]

That’s cap

[@EndlessLands]

Is there a video you could share demonstrating how to control writing on a surface that small? I am pretty curious to try it

[@hubbsllc]

The music is really irritating.

[@screamingjimmy]

i feel like I’m on hold with my doctors office

[@spacelemur7955]

Almost all music on videos is sure to annoy some people, because no-one shares the same taste. Worse, the latest fad is extremely repetitive snippets of notes.

[@SQUEEDGEY]

It wasn't until I read this lol

[@Mrshoujo]

Cope.

[@scottwyckoff5483]

Good eye

[@tomholroyd7519]

As Feynman said, most problems in biology you could solve if you could just look at the thing

[@jamesheartney9546]

You can see the smaller Lincoln on a penny with a simple eye magnifier; you don't need an electron microscope.

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

Depends on your age ;•) 15 years ago I could see him fine. Now I need a lens.

[@JimWilliams-s8z]

Its pretty revealing the closer we look at man's engineering the more irregularities are revealed yet when deep diving into nature the more exquisitely complex they become.

[@DatDuckOfficial]

this is like using a spaceship to cross the street. can’t these things zoom in much much farther than this?

[@timb7775]

If a space ship pulled up and asked if you wanted a ride across the street wouldn't you say yes?

[@DatDuckOfficial]

@@timb7775 i would but that’s not the point 😔

[@TALLPaul67X]

@timb7775 come on my guy, stop simpIng for IBM.

[@pedroh.6886]

​@@timb7775 we are on youtube, not in the real world, so seeing a spaceship cross the street in a video is as pathetic as seeing lincoln on this coin

[@scottgardener]

Two of my favorite nerdy things: microscopy and numismatics!

[@stars1861]

That was way less impressive than I imagined.

[@abdulrahmanelawady4501]

Thank you IBM for educational videos

[@william.youare6736]

I BM too.

[@royrice8021]

A “flash” of the image at 3:40. And I do mean a flash💥😩

[@motorlibro]

As a child I saw the Lincoln statue on the penny's reverse using a magnifier. Didn't even need electricity let alone electrons.....

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Well, you did *always* need both to even be here with the penny and the rest of us. With you as a child, however, the photonic imagery you were fashioning upon your retina via your direct examination were from photons, but then the electro-chemical messages your retina gathers and sends down your optical nerve and into your brain most certainly uses electrons in its work.

[@doktormcnasty]

Why is the secondary electron detector used here is the primary electron detector broken or something?

[@kilroy987]

"Here's something you've never done and the only thing that can do it!" You're right, I haven't done that, but I don't need that to do it at all.

[@richardelliott8352]

nice to see such a fantastic modern age miracle instrument at work. Some of the isolation techniques used in these microscopes are starting to trickle down into isolating audiophile record players from external energy.

[@AdrianBoyko]

Dude, the electron microscope was invented in the 1930s.

[@joanfrellburg4901]

If you zoom in even closer, Lincoln is holding a penny in his hand, that has his face on both sides.

[@josefmazzeo6628]

The most amazing thing I saw out of IBM labs is when they manipulated individual atoms (I forgot which element) to spell "IBM" under an electron microscope. Microchips also make interesting subjects for the electron microscope.

[@deandeann1541]

I learned to run an electron microscope when I was in graduate school - it was a blast. Zooming in on a sample is really fun. We had a sample of sand that we were trying to determine whether or not was from a marine deposit. We zoomed in on a single grain of sand until it looked like an asteroid, it filled the entire screen. Then I saw a small ledge on the side of the grain of sand, and we zoomed until the little ledge filled the screen and looked like a cliff. I saw a strange object on the side of the cliff so we zoomed in until the object filled the screen We had our answer, it was a fossil skeleton of a marine species of diatom, it had been waiting for us on a ledge on the side of a grain of sand for hundreds of thousands of years, where it had settled after dying in an ancient ocean, then we found it.

[@DavidDacaro]

Cool video I love imaging. I would modify the title for accuracy however to "What you can only see with a magnifying lupe or stronger" 😉

[@JackDavis]

I have operated an SEM at a fortune 50 company. This is accurate information. It did not require very much magnification to view Lincoln on the back of the penny. It's not likely that most people would find it interesting to see the penny at maximum magnification.

[@RBCharger]

I just checked. You can see Lincoln better with a 10X jeweler's loupe than you can with this electron microscope.

[@garylester8621]

I'm 77 need glasses, and I can see Lincoln better with the naked eye than with the electron microscope.

[@davewinch7677]

Maybe your eyes are not as bad as you thought they were. :-)

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

@@davewinch7677 I can shoot pool like a master sometimes (click my name), but up close I need 4X reading glasses. Years ago I could see dust particulate in the valleys between my fingerprints at 3 inches from my eyes. Now, 'focus' does not even begin until 18 inches and that is out of true, sharp focus. But I snap multi-rail bank pool shots like a champ.

[@DavidMcCoul]

Great video; very informative. It would be good to start off explaining why we need SEM in the first place as optical microscopes have a resolution limit because of the limitation in the minimum wavelength of visible light. Second, it merits mentioning that only electrically conducting samples can be imaged, making the penny ideal, but that PVD can be used to evaporate on a monolayer of a metal for nonconducting samples such as biological ones. Finally and most importantly, you should have taken an image of the *surface atoms* of the penny, not just stopped at the Lincoln Memorial statue that you can see in a standard optical microscope, and in some cases even the naked eye. P.S.: I think “anechoic” (pronounced “an-ek-O-ik”) was meant in the beginning, though it didn’t sound like that was what was said at all.

[@jeffreyfisher3115]

“It is better to aim at imperfection and hit it than it is to aim at perfection and miss it. That’s because it leaves the audience wanting more.” - Thomas J. Watson

[@Neil-ru7kw]

On NPR's Science Friday's program years ago , they did a segment about JPL's 5 M power electron microscope . A spokesman said they were in process on a 15 M power .

[@c123bthunderpig]

Right, I got my electron microscope at Wal-Mart, use it everyday. Glad to see that IBM's research dollars go to looking at pennies, improperly prepared for imaging. You can see Lincoln with just your eyes, and better with magnifying glass. Goo IBM.

[@sped6954]

Never noticed that until just now. If you have 20/20, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. My 20/20 started deteriorating around 2012, but my vision isn't too bad most of the time. If I need to read small print, a set of +1.50 reading glasses gets me through just fine. For small intricate work, I sometimes resort to +3.00. The oldest penny I looked at just now was a 1975, and I needed the small magnifier at the bottom of a $4 Walgreens magnifying glass. One of the more recent pennies that I could put my hands on without to much hunting, that still had the Lincoln Memorial on the reverse was a 2007, and I could just barely see the outline with +1.50 readers. It was much more defined with +3.00 readers, and even moreso with those readers and the small magnifier in the $4 Walgreens magnifying glass. One thing I wouldn't mind knowing... On the reverse, way off to the right, there appears to be something beside the steps. It almost looks like it says FG or 76. Can anyone either confirm or tell if it says something else? There's definitely something intentionally etched right there, because there is absolutely nothing beside the left side of the steps.

[@vootzombo]

This is like asking somebody what time it is and they tell you how to build a clock.

[@cangulec4206]

Was fun to watch. Thank you Mr.

[@jeremyhofmann7034]

Oh, little Lincoln, light and small, Yet in your metal, stories call. A nation’s history, held within, The tiniest treasure, where journeys begin.

[@ValidatingUsername]

I had some really old pennies go missing once perhaps one stumbled into your facility 😭

[@eulinpetit-woodyear6816]

Would have been nice to see a comparable view under the optical microscope too.

[@favesongslist]

The most interesting thing I saw scanned was that of a Bee's eye. I used to design Ion sputter coaters, mostly used to cover biological specimens in a single layer of gold atoms over the sample to reflect the electrons.

[@ChuckBaggett]

The view of Lincoln was extremely unclear. I couldn't really see it even with it being pointed to and labeled. Is the copper-colored image from an optical microscope?

[@johnschneider4160]

Put your glasses on!😂

[@Copa20777]

Amazing video, thank to engineer explaining it, i learnt a lot from him just pointing, beats a whole 3d animation on the subject❤

[@DAVIDALANJONESRIDGE]

It has also been suggested that the states that were in the Union when Mr. Lincoln was in office were engraved on the one cent piece along the top of The Memorial.

[@DavidBall-v5i]

Look at the eye of a dragonfly. Infinite amount of detail. Evolution is a manmade construct.

[@d.k.1394]

Agreee

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Pretty cool! How did the penny manufacturing process even have that sort of resolution?

[@TALLPaul67X]

Great point! The die makes carved the coining stamp, BY HAND, using and optical microscope in the first place.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@TALLPaul67X: Thanks, but I'm not sure how much of a point my question could be. Curiosity, though, yes. But what do you mean by "the die makes carved the coining stamp..."? Did you mean "makers"? Also, how did they have such small tools to manipulate the metal in the plates with?

[@JohnMichaelson]

Should've used a proof penny, it would be a whole lot clearer and with less crud all over it. Could've looked at the tiny little VDB on his shoulder on the obverse/heads side, too.

[@policedog4030]

That sure puts a friendly face on what was before a somewhat remote but impressive company

[@Anoldphotographer]

I used to build these anechoic rooms for one of the three letter government agencies, and the weird thing about them is that as soon as you enter one you have the urge to go pee. I was wondering if that is still true?

[@HelloRichard]

Nice video. I took electricon microscopy at University. Was my second favourite subject. Just a note, 2 nanometers is 0.002 microns. Slipped a decimal. No worries. Still love the video.

[@simonmorris-p7m]

I love the way to illustrate the (black & white) SEM image you’ve shown that you flash on screen an optical (coloured) image 🤔🤫😎

[@DadLogic]

I thought it was interesting that you had to use the microscope inside of an anechoic chamber. I’ve been in one and it can make you feel weird after a few minutes inside. I wonder how he can spend an extended time in there. The intense quiet isn’t for everyone.

[@truman4956]

Funny that acoustic foam on the walls has a very narrow absorption range and this looks like a KZbinrs studio.

[@theseventhgeneration6910]

38 seconds into it, I tilted my head like a confused dog. I truly don't understand this. If anyone can explain it, that would be awesome. Does it serve a purpose or is it just decoration? Hold on, let me finish the video...

[@theseventhgeneration6910]

Duh, sounds and vibrations affect the quality of the image.

[@theseventhgeneration6910]

Thanks

[@aidannolan6656]

Good video, it’s always nice looking at SEM images - just a tiny correction though; at 1’20” 2nm = 0.002um not 0.0002um an easy mistake to make..!

[@robcat2075]

Hmmm... I recall getting a better view with a regular optical scope back in the day.

[@rsl6767]

You have a better picture of Lincoln in the thumbnail

[@andrewjenery1783]

Interesting to know that even slight vibration can cause image loss

[@sgsge645]

It’s like taking Air Force 1 to pick up some chips at the corner store.

[@trog69]

Thanks for shooting down my life-long dream of having an electron microscope to look at my album covers while listening to my stereo system at full-blast. 2 x 12" subwoofers included! Now I have no purpose nor reason to live. Alas

[@davidquirk8097]

Thanks for showing us your workplace, very cool.

[@Kw1161]

Can you see the Zinc inside the modern Penny also? Have a great day!

[@hagardahorrible8198]

Yes you can! The rectangular device mounted on the right side of the electron column is Bruker energy dispersive x-Ray analyzer that is capable of detecting elements higher than Nitrogen! With this device you can generate x-ray maps that show the location of the detected elements.

[@Kw1161]

@@hagardahorrible8198 Thanks for the reply and have a great day !

[@lwmarti]

I did a better demo with an optical microscope on our "bring your family to work" day a few years back. To demo the SEM, I showed voltage contrast imaging, which is very cool. You can actually watch gates of a chip turn on and off. Try that with an optical microscope.

[@ellobo1326]

Absolute genius’ who designed such a microscope.

[@trevorhoward7682]

I'm not critical .... simply in awe!

[@Evasius]

I had me a penny once, had a lincoln on it too. Those were the days. ~Grandpa Simpson

[@hypergolic8468]

Impressive pressing/ stamping by the US mint.

[@Raptorman0909]

2nm is NOT 0.0002um, it is 0.002um. 2nm IS 0.002um (angstrom).

[@makeupyourmindinator]

So sounds like an easy mistake.

[@paulbertrand8935]

2 nm IS 20 Angstrom 😂

[@Raptorman0909]

@@paulbertrand8935 Yep, got my A and u switched -- fixed.

[@billmarshall8438]

I have weird vision and have always been able to see small things others couldn't. (I'm in my late sixties and I don't need reading glasses.) I found Lincoln #2 when I was a kid.

[@rcbeamer]

I got a penny in change last week. It was so old, Lincoln didn't even have a beard yet.

[@TheAgentAssassin]

Now do the tip of an unused 2020/2021 PCR covid test swab.

[@stevenpoe640]

I might have used a penny that didn't look like it had been dropped on the highway from a car going 80 mph.

[@d.k.1394]

Agree

[@Dizzyfingers2]

That was the most built-up let-down go-nowhere video ... ever.

[@tminusnyc2915]

I really needed him to uncover some illuminati secret.... Hahaha

[@glbernini0]

Its great to see how small SEM's have gotten over the decades, could have shown the bacteria on the coin!

[@jaimejaimeChannel]

Nice video - good presenter.

[@deltapee9259]

Wow, You only showed the tiny Lincoln for a micro-second. WTH? Now I need a machine to slow down time to see it.

[@rupe53]

the video has a pause feature for a reason.

[@davidevans3227]

if he hadn't have described it i wouldn't have seen it. not very clear..

[@studworth]

"And tonight, we're going to look at the Big Dipper through a telescope!"

[@psoon04286]

The demo was unimpressive but the explanation was what I was after. Thanks👍🙂

[@BreeBree-s6s]

I love how its called gemini too ❤

[@CoZmicShReddeR]

Microscopes don't lie! ;) I've always wanted to use an electron microscope. I'm a retired defect analyst for Ford Paint for 17 yrs seen a lot of interesting things with just a 100x optical.

[@dr.ofdubiouswisdom4189]

Yup! And on the $5 bill, Lincoln looks like he's stuck in the computer screen in 'The Matrix'. Great presentation, thanks!

[@headly21]

What's with the circus clown music in the background?

[@Microtonal_Cats]

This seems like a waste of a SEM. You could shoot the same detail at the same (fairly low) magnification with an off-the-shelf low 3-figure cost optical scope, you'd just have to illuminate from above.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

"Here goes the rod in..." OK, but weren't you gonna show us how you get the sample in from all the way outside?

[@amanwithnoname-ds6ep]

Wow, i never knew that, that's going to be a fun party fact. Thanks IBM

[@coinsmith]

If this is an indication of "things you never knew", you must be a very boring person to encounter at a party. Just sayin'.

[@amanwithnoname-ds6ep]

@@coinsmith same goes for you

[@jasonsimpkins9069]

I knew that and can actually see him. Maybe not clearly but definitely can see him.

[@Don.Challenger]

Very good demonstration, Mr. Ott, now some questions: What version electron microscope did you use for the germanium project, that same one (model/brand) or an earlier one, and if you had used the one you showed us here would your work have been more effectively done or not? If you jumped up and down while scanning the penny a second time would we notice the distortion? Why doesn't IBM have a 'big blue' brand of electron microscope themself?

[@VoiceTotheEndsOfTheEarth]

They invented the scanning tunneling microscope that can see atoms while I was working for them, but it was in the Zurich lab where they also won a Nobel prize for high temperature superconductors.

[@plupyduplupydu1369]

Thats metal copper-electrons(from your scope) would cause oxcidation(or any various combinations) and spoil the sample-and what do you amplifly

[@over-engineered]

surely 2 nano metres is 0.002 microns, not 0.0002

[@BurritoMassacre]

A penny? I can see Lincoln in the memorial with my naked eye. Let me see cell, an atom, something significant.

[@holyngrace7806]

That was interesting, Ty. A question for Mr. Ott. As photons are so much smaller than electrons and logically theoretically capable of much higher resolution, is there not an electromagnetic lens such as used with electrons that would work with electrons? If so, then the resolution and magnification would be orders of magnitude greater.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

"What you can only see under a scanning electron microscope" The cabinet it sits on.

[@trobjon1130]

Interesting that he didn’t mention you can only image objects with a metallic surface with these SEMs.

[@hagardahorrible8198]

Although you typically need a conductive surface, you can vacuum deposit graphite, germanium, tantalum etc. on the surface that would allow imaging. I ‘ve operated a SEM that allowed you to operate at partial vacuum levels and even allow moisture to be bled into the chamber to ground any surface charging. We used these techniques to image and analyze crossections of paper, insects, plastics, paint films etc.