This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen yet — a tungsten nanotip (a needle, in other words) that is only a single atom wide. The imaging is incredible as well, showing individual atoms and the blurs they make as they shifted during the 1-second exposure. From the article abstract:

“Confining this field-assisted etching reaction to the shank has enabled us to produce single-atom tips with an apex radius far sharper than the nominal 10 nm radius of curvature tips we start with.”

I had no idea we have developed imaging technology that can show individual atoms…