SCItations

We scientists love to come up with theories to explain things. Actually, it's kind of our job. For example, in my last post I talked about light waves, but you’ve probably also heard people talking about light particles , or photons. This dual theory of light is exactly that—a theory that we have come up with to explain some of the phenomena we have observed involving light. On the one hand, these kinds of theories allow us to communicate about things we can’t see. On the other hand, we may be completely and utterly wrong about how things are actually working. While I would love to ramble on about how this is what makes science so beautiful and why it’s silly to get so worked up about theories, this post actually does have a direction and a point. That point happens to be a carbon monoxide molecule on the tip of a nifty gadget called an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The basic principle of AFM relies on measuring the deflection of a lever as it is “dragged” over a molecule.