Mr. Preuss, The article: Debut of TEAM 0.5, the World's Best Microscope*
was very interesting and the new electron microscope is indeed a marvelous achievement.
It's too bad the article starts right out using an outdated unit of measurement; namely, the angstom:
... capable of producing images with half‑angstrom resolution (half a ten-billionth of a meter) ...
The modern metric system (SI) provides us with a proper SI unit for any range. The size of "half-angstom" can be more appropriately expressed in SI units such as the nanometre (or the picometre). The half-angstrom size can be more simply stated as 0.1 nanometre. A reference later in the article to an accuracy of "a billionth of a metre" could also have been stated as one nanometre. (I will agree that at some point in the article it would not have been inappropriate to state that a nanometre is one billionth of a metre, for readers less informed than the specialists in the field.)
The prefix "nano-" has become reasonably well known from the use of terms such as nanoseconds, nanotechnolgy etc. Those in such fields are surely familiar with it and know that "nano-" means ten to the negative ninth power. Later in the same article, statements are made using the terms "nanobridge" and "nanoparticle", illustrating the fact that "nano-" has come into fairly common use.
I note that the value in question can also be stated as 100 picometres, although the picometre is not yet as well known as the nanometre.
It is to be hoped that news of modern technical advances could be reported in clear and concise SI metric terms without invoking old fashioned units.
Regards, (Dr.) William Hooper Professor of Physics (retired) ========================== In Berkley Lab Research News, dated 2008 January 22 available online at:
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-NCEM-TEAM05.html
