You can see the atom with the naked eye!

 One of many difficulties in understanding the microworld is that it is extremely small. It, like, can't be analyzed applying microscopes, which are not effective at unique an individual atom of an element. Thus, scientists usually have to examine strange quantum effects indirectly.

But sometimes it is still possible to consider an atom of an element despite having the bare eye. Correct, for this, you'll need to resort to cunning. So the British physicist Mark Nadlinger surely could capture the ion of the element strontium on an ordinary camera. Correct, we don't see the gentle reflected from it, nevertheless the strontium atom itself produces photons - this is the "secret"

This photograph won the UK Engineering and Physics Science Photography Competition | David Nadlinger

This barely visible point in the middle is a strontium ion in an ion trap | David Nadlinger

To get this done, Mark Nadlinger placed a strontium ion in a so-called quadrupole capture - a device that, using an electric field, is able to hold the ions of a substance in one single position, stopping them from causing the trap. At the same time frame, the atom was irradiated with many lasers, which stimulated it to release photons at a greater frequency. Consequently, the atom became obvious to the bare eye.