The last time we used a scanning electron microscope (a SEM), it looked like something from a bad 1950s science fiction movie. These days SEMs, like the one at the IBM research center, look like computers with a big tank poised nearby. Interestingly, the SEM is so sensitive that it has to be in a quiet room to prevent sound from interfering with images.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://hackaday.com/2024/06/19/what-you-can-see-with-a-sem/