The Lost Treasure of Electron Microscopy
Unpublished images should be brought to light to aid science communication and speed up discovery.
By Valentine Ananikov, 2025-10-16T13:30:00+01:00. Unpublished images should be brought to light to aid science communication and speed up discovery.
Source: NM Ivanova, AS Kashin and VP Ananikov, Chemistry, 2025, 7, 160.
A few years ago, the author was preparing a popular lecture for a wide audience, aiming to show the beauty of chemistry through images taken with an electron microscope.
Many striking images were hidden in the ‘lost’ electron microscope data, including these crystals of sodium chloride.
The author remembered a project with stunning pictures of a metal-on-carbon catalyst, featuring a surface that looked like a fantastic landscape from another planet – craters, valleys and mountains frozen in nanoscale.
Author's summary: Unpublished electron microscopy images can aid science communication.
- Images taken with an electron microscope can show the beauty of chemistry.
- Unpublished images, such as those of a metal-on-carbon catalyst, can be striking and aid discovery.