<p>Different bond lengths in molecules have conventionally been drawn for years (left) but IBM scientists now have measured those lengths precisely with a microscope (right).</p><p>Here's a challenge: envision a trillionth of something. You might think of one penny compared to a billion dollars. Or how in travelling one meter, the Earth completes around a trillionth of its annual journey. Now you can add one more thing to the list, thanks to researchers in Zurich: a picometer, or a trillionth of a meter, is around the smallest distance that humans can resolve with a microscope.</p><p>Building on their impressive microscopy work over the last few years, a team from IBM has refined their method to precisely measure the structural details of a single molecule. With their technique, they managed to measure very subtle differences in the distribution of electrons within the molecule's bonds. How subtle? We're talking 3 picometers or 0.000000000003 meters.</p><p>That's one-hundredth the diameter of an atom!</p><p><a href="http://singularityhub.com/2012/10/03/ready-new-microscope-technique-has-resolution-100-times-smaller-than-an-atom/">Keep reading...</a></p>