Yeah, you are correct in your scale thinking I believe. It is just not possible to see an atom and 'threaded fasteners' on the same scale. But what makes that photograph so interesting to me is not that it is an actual photo of an atom but the fact that 'we' (humans) got one atom loose and held it in place, all alone, for long enough to even photograph the light emitted from it. Sorta' like "Hey, wanna' see AN atom?" or even better, "Hey, wanna' see MY atom?".
Long time ago, I saw an ECM image of silicon atoms aligned in a matrix or true crystal- it was a fantastic image of why silicone is a non- conductor (only a semi- conductor when properly doped or 'contaminated' with other elements to purposefully break the crystalline structure) and how covalent bonds work.
I could spend the rest of my life twiddling with an ECM :-) Got to see one at college doing a scan of balsa wood and the structure of the wood was nothing short of amazing; like millions of cigarette paper tubes, all bundled together, hollow but strong.
Thanks for posting this Conrad- it really is quite cool I think.
Brian
Cool stuff right there! Doesn't really say but wondering what the scale is. I see nuts and bolts and then the 2 needles which look visible to the naked eye. If the 2 ends are say .1 mm then the dot is .01 mm. (total guessing on my part) Molecules are in the 1/2 nano-meter range. So a molecule would be 5/100,000 that size and a molecule is much bigger than an atom. Even if my guessing is off by 2 orders of magnitude, still 200 times too big for a molecule. Would like to know exactly what we are looking at. Does the light emitting from the atom make it look much bigger?