Probing the history of scanning tunneling microscopy

We present a brief history of the development of scanning tunneling mi- croscopy (STM). These microscopes, developed in 1981 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer (Nobel prize 1986), are capable of imaging and manipulating at an atomic level. STMs, and the group of instruments corporately referred to as scanning probe microscopes that evolved from them, are part of the instrumentation that has enabled nanotechnology. In our history we examine how these instruments have been used (perhaps wrongly) in the "standard story" of the emergence of nanotech- nology. Nanotechnology has developed in a context sometimes referred to as "post- academic", because of the increased emphasis on aspects of commercialization. We examine how this "post-academic" context has influenced the development of these instruments. Our history of STM shows an epistemological shift that is part of post- academic science and nanotechnology policy.