I mean everytime there is an earthquake, a flood, an oil spill – there’s always a group of heartless people who rip off tax payers.

This is in response to reading that 4 of Oprah Winfreys “angels” got busted ripping off the system. Shame on them!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/19/crimesider/entry5251471.shtml

Although it looks good, it is not really a picture of atoms. A scanning electron microscope dose not allow you to SEE things the way a regular microscope dose. Instead it passes a charged probe across the surface of an object and measures slight changes in electricity flowing through the probe. It then sends that data to a computer, which uses a complicated set of mathematical equations from a theory called “quantum mechanics” to calculate what she surface of the object should look like. The computer then graphs the results of that calculation, adding colors to enhance the quality of the image.

so what you are really seeing in this photo is the result of a calculation that comes from a theory about how electricity flows under certain circumstances. Thus if the theory is correct, and if the computer calculation is correct, then you are seeing a REPRESENTATION of atoms on the surface of the metal examined with the scanning electron microscope. Those are two big “if’s” however.

Now I personally think both the theory and calculations are correct, so I think that what you see in the image above is probably a good representation of gold, excluding the color, which has been artificialy added.

although it looks good, it is not really a picture of atoms. A scanning electron microscope dose not allow you to SEE things the way a regular microscope dose. Instead it passes a charged probe across the surface of an object and measures slight changes in electricity flowing through the probe. It then sends that data to a computer, which uses a complicated set of mathematical equations from a theory called “quantum mechanics” to calculate what she surface of the object should look like. The computer then graphs the results of that calculation, adding colors to enhance the quality of the image.

so what you are really seeing in this photo is the result of a calculation that comes from a theory about how electricity flows under certain circumstances. Thus if the theory is correct, and if the computer calculation is correct, then you are seeing a REPRESENTATION of atoms on the surface of the metal examined with the scanning electron microscope. Those are two big “if’s” however.

Now I personally think both the theory and calculations are correct, so I think that what you see in the image above is probably a good representation of gold, excluding the color, which has been artificialy added.