They say it’s a picture of atoms, but what are the atoms: the glowing yellow balls or the entire meatball including the darker red? If it’s the meatballs, then why do some have apparently two nuclei?
Here’s the public press release: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/05/cornell-researchers-see-atoms-record-resolution
Here’s the actual scientific article: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg2533
Each of the orbs are the atoms. The brighter orbs that are nearest each other at the Praseodymium (Pr) atoms. The single orbs are the Scandium (Sc) atoms and the less prominent orbs are the Oxygen atoms. I believe based on the content of the article.The space between is just that, the space between the atoms. They are all in a lattice pattern due to how they are attracted to each other.