[HN Gopher] Vibration Isolation of Precision Objects (2005) [pdf]
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       Vibration Isolation of Precision Objects (2005) [pdf]
        
       Author : nill0
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2025-12-22 05:55 UTC (6 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sandv.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sandv.com)
        
       | Scene_Cast2 wrote:
       | Tangentially related - I was doing some highly sensitive analog
       | electronics work. It's surprisingly hard to find capacitors that
       | don't exhibit microphonic behavior - i.e. they don't produce
       | (miniature) voltage swings when you tap the PCB.
        
       | lanthade wrote:
       | Back 30 odd years ago I was doing work with a graduate/post
       | graduate chem-e/material science group at the U of MN. I was
       | working with a PhD candidate who was working on synthetic
       | insulin. Part of the project was attempting to use a scanning
       | tunneling microscope (STM) to image insulin at the molecular
       | level. I hadn't ever done work with STM before and part of
       | showing proficiency with the tool was to image Highly Oriented
       | Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) at the molecular level. As you can
       | imagine almost any vibration will show up when you're working on
       | the scale where you measure in angstroms.
       | 
       | To solve for the vibration issue the STM lab was in the basement
       | of the building and the STM equipment sat on a multi-ton granite
       | block that was suspended from the ceiling of the building. The
       | building sits in the center of the U of MN campus right next to a
       | major roadway so there were lots of opportunities for vibrations
       | to enter into the structure.
       | 
       | One of the coolest feelings was the day that I successfully
       | imaged HOPG at the molecular level. To point at the image on
       | screen and be able to say "That's a carbon atom!" is insanely
       | cool. I didn't end up staying in chem-e but the experience of
       | working in a real research lab with highly intelligent and
       | creative people has impacted my life in numerous ways.
        
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       (page generated 2025-12-28 23:00 UTC)