Fanghur Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 I've taken several courses on microscopy and I was just wondering why it is that nobody has tried to make a microscope that uses gamma rays? If I'm not mistaken such a microscope would theoretically give much higher resolution and magnification than even an electron microscope, because the wavelength of an electron dwarfs the wavelength of a gamma ray (ie. gamma rays have much shorter wavelengths than electrons do). I mean I know you wouldn't be able to use it to study living organisms, but in principle why couldn't we build one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Skeptic Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 I'm pretty sure we've used gamma rays to study small things. Also, electrons are any wavelength you wish to accelerate them to, and they are much easier to accelerate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Focusing gamma rays would be problem as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyardnut Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Allow me to point you to http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08b.htm Hope this will be a very helpful dead-end for your quest ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cuthber Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 There are no gamma ray lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fertilizerspike Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Allow me to point you to http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08b.htm Hope this will be a very helpful dead-end for your quest ! You're citing Heisenberg imagining a gamma ray microscope as proof of his "uncertainty principle"? That's basically what the piece you cited says, that Heisenberg imagined a gamma ray microscope imaging an electron and he found (shocker) that his imaginings fit precisely with his predictions. Eureka!!! There are no gamma ray lenses. Actually you're a little behind the times, it was demonstrated last year that silicon lenses can be used to focus gamma rays. Shocker!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cuthber Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 In one post you demand a sample of dark matter before you will believe in it. Yet here, you are happy to cite a work that suggests that a gamma ray lens might be possible as evidence that such a lens exists. Is that bases solely on your own preferences, or is there another reason of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekan Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Could we make a "Quark Microscope"? It would be like an "Electron Microscope", but with more resolving power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Could we make a "Quark Microscope"? It would be like an "Electron Microscope", but with more resolving power. You can't have a single quark owing to asymptotic freedom. Adding energy just creates new quark pairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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