Older Than deck / Inventions and everyday things
Scanning tunnelling microscope
Introduced
1981
Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer’s microscope that can show single atoms.
Sources and checks
Checked 2026-11-01: Researched by Codex (two independent publishers, verbatim quotes); every counted quote re-found on its page by the server check (content-verify, or content-verify-pdf for PDFs); scope and plausibility reviewed by Claude (AI build agent). Quotes are short passages from each source; for dates the quote is the year as printed, read in context.
“The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), introduced in 1981”IBM — original institutional history: source, retrieved 2026-10-28; quote re-found by the server check
“scanning tunneling microscope (STM), in 1981”National Inventors Hall of Fame — Heinrich Rohrer biography: source, retrieved 2026-10-28; quote re-found by the server check
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