I think they mean that this is the first time individual atoms have been imaged using this specific type of electron microscope. Individual atoms have of course

I think they mean that this is the first time individual atoms have been imaged using this specific type of electron microscope. Individual atoms have of course been imaged as early as the 1980s using scanning tunneling microscopy. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope