The infinitely small tackles counterfeiting

The University of Montreal chemist Richard Martel explores a vast world on a tiny scale. "There are more H2O molecules in a sip of water [≈1024] than there are seconds since the Big Bang [≈1018]," he says to illustrate the scale at which he observes the Universe. In his laboratory, which is one of the most stable in Canada because of its seven-metre-deep foundations embedded directly in the Canadian Shield, he uses a low-energy electron microscope in which a vacuum has been created greater than the one surrounding the international space station. "This instrument," he says, "is like the astronomer's telescope. With it, you can look at matter at a minute scale, in the nanometre range, some 50,000 times smaller than a human hair.

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