A beam of light? No – electrons dance,
Through foil so thin, they pierce by chance.
A lattice revealed, a whisper, a trace,
Of atoms aligned in crystalline grace.
No longer just theory, or grayscale in books,
But fringes and defects in shimmering looks.
The voids, the bubbles, the twins, the grains and the tears,
A world once unseen now lays bare its layers.
My first TEM – a portal, a spell,
To the secrets that metals, alloys and phases won’t tell.
And though it was fleeting, that very first glance,
It sparked in my heart a diffraction romance <3.
Materials at Extremes 