What if you just keep zooming in?

Veritasium takes you behind the science of imaging atoms. The video explains why atoms can’t be seen with visible light, how high-energy electrons provide wavelengths small enough to resolve atomic structures, and why spherical aberration blocked progress for decades. It traces Ruska’s first transmission electron microscope, Crewe’s bright, scanned beam approach, and the radical aberration-correction breakthroughs by Newt Urban, Harold Rose, and Max Hayder that finally delivered atomic-resolution images. The narrative also highlights the Kavli Prize recognition and shows how modern electron microscopes reveal materials at the atomic scale, enabling deeper understanding of metals, oxides, and catalysts. This journey shows how a stubborn roadblock became a turning point for nanoscience.

Introduction: Why Atoms Are Hard to See

Veritasium opens with the astonishing claim that atoms are far smaller than anything visible with normal light, and that to image them we need wavelengths thousands of times shorter. Louis de Broglie’s insight that matter has wave-like properties implies that electrons, with their much shorter wavelengths, are the natural tool for atomic-scale imaging. The video introduces the basic physics: visible light spans roughly 380 to 750 nanometers, while an atom is about 0.1 nanometers across, making optical diffraction a fundamental barrier. The lesson is simple but profound: to resolve atoms you need something with a much smaller wavelength, and that thing is high-energy electrons. "The best candidate isn't even light. It's electrons." - Derek Muller

The TEM's Early Promise and the Spherical Aberration Roadblock

Shortly after de Broglie’s ideas, the first practical electron microscope was built by Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll in the 1930s. A transmission electron microscope (TEM) works by transmitting a beam of electrons through a very thin sample, with a series of electromagnetic lenses magnifying the image onto a detector. By the mid-1930s, TEMs could magnify far beyond optical microscopes, revealing tiny life and virus structures. Yet there was a fundamental optical problem: spherical aberration. As the magnetic lens focuses electrons, the outer rays are deflected too much, causing blur that worsens with magnification. That blur is inherent in radially symmetric lenses and cannot be fully corrected in the traditional lens design. "Spherical aberration distorts every radially symmetric magnetic lens" - Dr. Magnus Garbrecht

The Limitation Realized: Scherzer's Theorem

The field hit a stalemate when Otto Scherzer published a theoretical result showing that a radially symmetric magnetic lens cannot diverge, making a fundamental path to higher resolution blocked. The consequence was that even with brighter beams and higher voltages, there remained a hard limit on focusing quality. The video underscores this moment as a pivotal roadblock for decades of TEM development. "It is impossible to produce a radially symmetric magnetic lens that diverges." - Otto Scherzer

Workarounds and the Ascent of Scanning TEM

Researchers pursued clever workarounds in the ensuing decades, including the adoption of scanning methods that teased higher resolution by mapping the sample point-by-point rather than imaging the whole plane at once. Albert Crewe popularized a bright, narrow electron beam that scanned like a CRT television across the sample, enabling higher contrast and forceful progress toward atomic-scale imaging. This era produced many advances but remained limited by the persistent spherical aberration barrier. "After more than 60 years of failed attempts, Urban Rose and Hayder pulled off the seemingly impossible" - Derek Muller

Breakthroughs: Diverging Lenses and the 0.13 nm Leap

In a radical departure from standard lens design, Newt Urban, Harold Rose and Max Hayder dared to break image symmetry with highly distorted, multi-pole magnets to generate controlled divergence, aiming to cancel the spherical aberration of the primary lens. After a tense period of testing and a late-night cooldown that settled the magnets, the team produced the first aberration-corrected TEM images with unprecedented sharpness. The result was an astonishing improvement: resolution down to about 0.13 nanometers, turning atomic imaging from a once-aspirational goal into a routine capability in premier laboratories. The breakthrough is celebrated as one of the defining moments in nanoscience. "After more than 60 years of failed attempts, Urban Rose and Hayder pulled off the seemingly impossible" - Derek Muller

Impact, Recognition, and the New Era of Atomic Science

With aberration correction, transmission electron microscopy unlocked direct imaging and precise measurement of atomic positions in materials, enabling researchers to link structure with function in unprecedented detail. The video highlights that, by 2020, the breakthrough was recognized with Kavli Prize awards, cementing the method as essential to modern material science, chemistry, and engineering. The host emphasizes that seeing atoms is now a standard capability that drives discovery across universities worldwide, and that these imaging advances empower researchers to relate nanoscale structure to properties with remarkable clarity. "In 2020, all four were awarded the Kavli Prize in nanoscience for accomplishing what so many others thought impossible" - Derek Muller