The Swiss Nobel laureate who shared the award for one of the greatest inventions of modern times; the microscope was regarded as one of the gifted physicists of the modern era. Born on the 6th of June 1933, Heinrich Rohrer was always up close to physics, starting off in an early age when he was enrolled as a student of masterminds like Wolfgang Pauli and Paul Scherer. He had important titles to his name even before the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope like spending time at the University of California for research on nuclear magnetic resonance, and joining IBM Research Laboratory where he later headed the physics department of research lab and invented the aforementioned microscope.
On late Thursday night 16th May 2013, the world lost this gem of a person at the age of 79 in Wollerau Switzerland. He was fighting an illness since quite a while though the death is believed to be of natural causes. He has left behind his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren all of whom must be extremely proud him.
Rohrer was acclaimed for his scanning tunneling microscope since it was a breakthrough into the field of nanotechnology; the microscope enables scientists to get up close and personal with the atoms by allowing them to make images as detailed as one-25th of the diameter of an atom! This has helped identify the previously unknown structures of viruses and chips. In words of John E. Kelly:
“The invention of the scanning tunneling microscope was a seminal moment in the history of science and information technology.”
The story of Rohrer and his partner, Dr. Binnig’s achievement started with their desire to study the lesser known structures of atoms in the course of which they found out that they needed a new type of microscope as the electron microscopes were not good enough for it –hence the invention process started. Just as all genius ideas are criticized at some point, the scientists at IBM were skeptical about their project due to the delicacy of the microscope to be built and often remarked them to be “completely crazy”. Some of them went on to add” “but if it works you’ll get the Nobel Prize” –as if that’s exactly what was written.
The depth that his work has provided to the field of nanotechnology is evidenced by the latest usage of his research by IBM to make a film. Verified by Guinness Book of World Records, that assembles atom into the shape of a boy that dances along while playing catch with an atom. All of the film was made using atoms frame by frames that were magnified to 100 million times –the film was called “A Boy and His Atom”.
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