You’re looking at one of the most awesome photographs I think I’ve ever seen… that big mass of thingies that look like titanium ping-pong balls (and which reminds me of the starship Fesarius from that old episode of Star Trek) is the tip of a tungsten needle, supposedly the sharpest object made by man, under extreme magnification. So extreme, in fact, that each of those little ping-pong balls is in fact an individual atom. That’s right, this is a photograph of freakin’ atoms. I find that simply astounding… almost as astounding as the fact that the technology to take these photographs has been around since 1951. Isn’t science amazing, kids?

The photo originated here; details of the technique used to take the photo are here.