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

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

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

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

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).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

"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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you IBM for educational videos

Was fun to watch. Thank you Mr.

Two of my favorite nerdy things: microscopy and numismatics!

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" 😉

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

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.

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

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.

Thanks for showing us your workplace, very cool.

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

“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

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

wonder when these will be feasible for maker space use... 🤔 (digital x-ray is just about there, so SEM is likely a long way out)

Can you look at an alpha or beta radioactive element? So as to allow use to see the decay process?

Does the SEM cause ionization of the subject being examined?

Dope video very well explained

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

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..!

Seems like a nice fellow. Thanks for the clear presentation.

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 .

Absolute genius’ who designed such a microscope.

It's not an "ana holic" chamber. It's an anechoic chamber. As in no echoes.

What keyboard is that? extra buttons & multiple spinney knobs!

Thank you, very interesting.

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

I really enjoyed this video. 👍🏻

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

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

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.

I think I saw Bigfoot, Santa Claus, and J. Edgar Hoover peeping around the columns.

Can you use that to remove a really tiny splinter in your finger?

Absolutely Amazing John, many thanks🤩🇦🇺

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

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

Fascinating!

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

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?

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.

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

Great explained, and wow what a microscope. How made that penny stamp so role model so exactly?

Haha😂 IBM, you need to sue KZfaq. I got an ad for HP before your video 🤣

I love how its called gemini too ❤

Very interesting!

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

Impressive pressing/ stamping by the US mint.

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

Fascinating

Pretty cool!

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

I was curious how you focus SEM. And now I know. Fun VOD. Ty. side note, you should have done that with a new, Mint State 70 or Proof coin. *smile-

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

The music is really irritating.

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

Cheers, my friend 🍻

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.

Very nice 😎

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I love IBM.

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

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

You don't need an electron microscope to see the statue of Lincoln inside the monument on a penny.

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

This commercial was brought to you by IBM.

That's awesome.... 😮❤

I bought an HP-48GX calculator on ebay that had a nameplate that said 'Jonathan Ott' - curious you are the same guy.

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

Nice Zeiss!

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.

GORGEOUS SEM. Zeiss is the best... but that's an AO dissecting scope! TRAITOR! Lol

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?