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Science 16 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5413, pp. 420 - 421
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5413.420
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News Focus

ACOUSTICS:
Probing the Shaking Microworld

Alexander Hellemans

At a recent acoustics meeting in Berlin, several European research groups reported techniques that set a sample vibrating with sound waves and then use atomic force microscopes or scanning tunneling microscopes to sense how its atoms are jiggling about, revealing details of the material's physical properties, such as elasticity, on a microscopic scale. Such studies can help improve the performance of communications equipment, televisions, and cellular phones, which regularly rely on acoustic transducers as filters to exclude unwanted signal around their desired frequencies.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)