Electron microscope photo shakes scientists to their core

The world’s most powerful electron microscope, located at the Palmer Research Lab in Colorado, took an innocent picture of a new virus last month.

The virus, X-C-2, had been isolated, according to researchers at the Palmer facility, in December.

I’ll let Dr. Haverford Danton tell the rest of the story:

“I thought it would be interesting to try out our new photographic technique. It’s an amplification process that exceeds any magnification we’ve yet achieved.”

“So, essentially, I copied the photo of X-C-2, the new virus, and transferred it to that system and amplified it over 700 million times, and then enlarged it 200 million more times.”

“And what I saw knocked me off my chair.”

“It was a picture of my face.”