For the record, individual atoms were imaged for the first time back in 1955: http://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8348atoms.html http://pubsapp.acs.org/ce

For the record, individual atoms were imaged for the first time back in 1955: http://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8348atoms.html http://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8348atoms.html? > On Oct. 11, 1955, Pennsylvania State University physics professor Erwin W. Müller and Kanwar Bahadur, who at the time was a Ph.D. student working with Müller, made history by being the first people to image individual atoms. The scientists were using a relatively simple and inexpensive instrument, and with it they directly observed individual tungsten atoms at the tip of a sharply pointed tungsten specimen.