Humans are very much visual creatures. A picture speaks a thousand words, even in science. Think of some of the famous Hubble telescope images or the awe inspired by some of the first electron microscope pictures. This is why, even when data isn't inherently visual, we still visualize it in graphs and plots as a route to understanding.
But the need for visualizing goes much deeper than that. For instance, an experiment that offers nothing more than visualization of a process that we already understand still has an impact. In some sense, it doesn't just confirm what we already know to be true, but makes it real for the first time.
Perhaps because of this, imaging techniques rock my world. And, even though I'm an optics guy, I (grudgingly) extend this to electron microscopy as well. Which is a good thing, considering one of my friends has just demonstrated a new twist on electron microscopy. This new microscope uses incredibly short bursts of electrons to generate images. Although the initial demonstration is a bit prosaic, the way the experiment is put together offers promise for imaging at a resolution near to a single atom and a temporal resolution of just a few femtoseconds (10-15s).
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