February 4, 2008 4:00 AM PST
Yep, that was an old can of Arizona Ice Tea you saw in the first photo. The can serves as a housing that increases the vacuum inside the microscope.
Preparing a sample for observation is a complex process, Heinrich said. First, a substrate has to be scraped and cleaned. Then, it gets heated up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, which lets the atoms shift and form a smooth surface. Vacuums then eliminate impurities and other items. What you see in the picture are the preparation and staging components.
Photo by Corinne Schulze/CNET News.com
