Word: precisionism
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Who could possibly need such precision? Practically everyone, indirectly at least. Telephone and computer networks rely on atomic clocks to synchronize the flow of trillions of bits of information, thus avoiding mammoth electronic logjams. TV and radio stations use the clocks to time their broadcasts. The armed forces employ them...
The principle behind all this precision comes from quantum physics. When an atom is bombarded with electromagnetic radiation -- in this case microwaves -- it shifts into a new energy state. Each type of atom responds most readily to a particular frequency. For the cesium-133 atoms in most atomic clocks, the...
Just as improvements in navigational tools opened the oceans to sailing ships, so a new generation of precision instruments has exposed a breathtaking microworld to scientific exploration. Aided by computers that convert blizzards of data into images on a screen, these instruments are helping scientists see -- and even tinker with...
SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPES. Invented only 10 years ago, these extraordinary instruments probe surfaces with a metallic tip only a few atoms wide. At very short distances, electrons can traverse the gap between the tip and the surface, a phenomenon known as tunneling. This generates a tiny current that can be...
Cabezon is a complex narrator who describes what he sees with microscopic precision, but who generally withholds his own feelings. Aridjis employs a stilted language of stylized historical resonances, slipping only on occasion into the passionate lyricism the reader expects of one of Mexico's foremost poets.