An image of a single atom of the metal strontium suspended in electric fields has won a prestigious science photography prize.
David Nadlinger’s photo, Single Atom In An Ion Tap, was captured through the window of a vacuum chamber in an Oxford University laboratory, using an ordinary digital camera on a long exposure shot.
Two metal electrodes, two millimetres apart, held the strontium almost motionless as it was illuminated with a blue-violet-coloured laser.
The image beat more than 100 entries to claim first place overall in the 2018 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) science photography competition.
Mr Nadlinger said: ‘The idea of being able to see a single atom with the naked eye had struck me as a wonderfully direct and visceral bridge between the minuscule quantum world and our macroscopic reality.
‘A back-of-the-envelope calculation showed the numbers to be on my side, and when I set off to the lab with camera and tripods one quiet Sunday afternoon, I was rewarded with this particular picture of a small, pale blue dot.’
Other photos which impressed the judges included an extreme close-up of a butterfly’s wing captured by Bernice Akpinar from Imperial College London with an atomic force microscope, scooping first place in the weird and wonderful category.
There was also a two-part entry from Luke Cramphorn of the University of Bristol Robotics Laboratory, featuring a robotic hand and arm taking a selfie with a smartphone attached to a selfie stick, along with the photograph itself.
Professor Dame Ann Dowling, the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and one of the judges, said: ‘Not only do we have really strong, attractive photographs, the stories behind them about the research and why it is being done are inspiring.’