POPULAR SCIENCE
November 30th, 2020
A since-deleted viral tweet from an electron microscopy technician at a Washington KC science lab has stirred an uproar in the global scientific community.
The technician, identified as Dan Zanowski, works at the Kansas City University's Electromagnetic Imaging lab as an imaging assistant. It is believed that Zanowski was verifying fidelity of images received from a use of the campus technology when he shared his discovery public. The tweet was deleted two hours after it went up but as evidenced by the screenshot it has continued to circle the wider internet.
Neither Zanowski nor the University of Kansas responded to a request for comment. Since the tweet's initial publication scientists and researchers of nanotechnology have weighed in on the likelihood that the images are either a hoax or a mistaken interpretation of the data. Kareem Wilson, a nanotechnology researcher at Renautas-Weiss Evolved Nanotechology stated simply on Twitter: "it is unlikely this is legitimate biotech nanomachines. We're just not there yet. Maybe in 10 or 20 years."
Whether the image is authentic or not, it has sparked renewed interest in the field of nanotechnology and ignited the imagination of scientists in microtech around the world.