How Large is the Quantum Microscopy Frontier?
Each cell in the human body contains about a hundred times as many atoms as there are stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Quantum microscopy has the potential ability to observe all of these atoms, individually, in the same sensu stricto that a telescope resolves the Milky Way into individual stars. This capability—if achieved—will revolutionize both biology and medicine as thoroughly as the telescope revolutionized astronomy. So we are led to ask, what might an atomic-level description of a cell mean? Will it be a database, a catalog, a taxonomy? Will it be intellectual property, and if so, who can justly lay claim to it? Might it tell stories, and if so, what stories? And who will be telling them? Who will be listening? For defense analysts, this new frontier will represent new threats and new defense capabilities. For venture capitalists and corporations it will generate new intellectual property cheaply, rapidly, and in unbounded quantities. For biologists and materials scientists it wi
