Cambridge unveils UK's most powerful microscope

The University of Cambridge has unveiled a microscope with a resolution that will allow researchers to examine objects a million times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The FEI Titan 3 Electron Microscope has a resolution of less than 0.7 Angstroms, and it will be used in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, along with a project examining how water can be purified using special ultraviolet lights. An Angstrom is equivalent to 0.1 nanometre.

"This atom-resolving microscope will be used to help solve some of the most important problems facing our world today: for example, shortages of energy and drinkable water," said Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, director of research in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, in a statement on Friday.

Regarding Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease research, the microscope will examine plaques — nanometre-wide, insoluble, misfolded proteins, which collect in the brain and are seen by many scientists as having a decisive role in the nature of the conditions.