super lens

 I just read this article written by Marica Goodrich at Michagan Tech University-http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2012/january/story60318.html , and the information within is amazing! This article talks about the concept and persuit of a Super lens, or a "perfect" lens that can allow us humans to use microscopes to see objects as small as 100 nm. this is only half of the size of the current most powerful compound microscope- around 200nm, but the concept of how to make it is completely different and may revolutionize our technology- making microscopes as easy to access as a cell phone and making much smaller, cheaper, and better technology produceable.
"The secret lies in plasmons, charge oscillations near the surface of thin metal films that combine with special nanostructures. When excited by an electromagnetic field, they gather light waves from an object and refract it in a way not seen in nature called negative refraction. This lets the lens overcomes the diffraction limit. And, in the case of Guney’s model, it could allow us to see objects smaller than 1/1,000^th the width of a human hair."-Marcia Goodrich, http://www.mtu.edu/  The implications for a cheaper, better lens using negative refraction are great, and I can't wait until I can get a phone that has one or a phone made with one. XD