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Re:24-hour race won by molecule that traveled 1 micron by COGlory on Saturday April 23, 2022 @09:31PM (#31140445)
I am an electron microscopist and I am thoroughly confused by what I am looking at. The article simply labels it as "the worlds largest electron microscope" which is confusing because size is not really a measure of electron microscopy as far as I'm aware. Perhaps voltage or resolution? The contest took place at NIMS which is well known for EM but I've never seen any photos like that one:

https://www.nims.go.jp/eng/research/group/electron-microscop...

Anyways, if that's a TEM my guess is the contraption at the top is more about the source (providing high voltage to the emitter) than the optics. Optics don't require much power, a single electron is not difficult to manipulate at all. What's harder is getting a coherent electron beam at the voltage you need (i.e. 300 kV+).

Re:24-hour race won by molecule that traveled 1 micron by kalimanzaro on Sunday April 24, 2022 @05:29AM (#31142479)
Oops I intended that as a pun on (the abuse of) the word 'optics' in PR/marketing/media/politics..
Re:24-hour race won by molecule that traveled 1 micron by SAI_Peregrinus on Sunday April 24, 2022 @01:30PM (#31146190)
It looks like a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier. So it's the power source.