Number 27 (Story #3), March 28, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein A LASER-DRIVEN SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE has been developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Garching, Germany. M. Volcker and his colleagues couple laser radiation into the tip of an STM and, because the device can be operated without any dc current between tip and sample, it may be possible to study insulators, which cannot be imaged with conventional STM's. (Upcoming article in Physical Review Letters.)