Microscopy News Round Up
Microscopy News Round Up
The University of Delaware and McMaster University are both enjoying new powerful microscopes this holiday season.
The University of Delaware has installed a Zeiss LSM780 laser-scanning confocal microscope. Melinda Duncan, who does research on cataracts, has used the microscope to see the ball and sockets on the outside of lens fiber cells. While these structures could be seen with an electron microscope, the confocal microscope will allow study of their function and can even be used to image an entire eye. The microscope will also find use in examining how fluids diffuse through bone in work aimed to develop efficient drug delivery systems to treat osteoporosis and arthritis.
This image, taken with the University of Delaware’s new confocal microscope, shows the highly invasive tumor embolus of inflammatory breast cancer. Photo courtesy of Prof. Kenneth van Golen, Department of Biological Sciences, and his laboratory group: Heather Unger, Erica Dashner and Michelle Lucey; with Rebekah Helton and Kirk Czymmek, DBI Bio-imaging Center.
McMaster University has now fully tested the new Titan 80-300 Cubed electron microscope installed at its Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy. Built in the Netherlands by the FEI Company at a cost of $15-million, the microscope is one of several instruments in the Centre that will perform nano level analysis. The microscope can easily identify atoms, measure their chemical state, and even probe electrons that bind them together.
Aluminum alloy sample seen through the lens of the Titan 80-300 Cubed electron microscope.
The microscope can accomplish an astounding 14-million times magnification. There are many applications for a microscope that approaches the physical limits what physics allows us to see. It will advance studies aimed at more efficient lighting and better solar cells, be used to study proteins and drug-delivery materials to target cancers, to assess atmospheric particulates and even to create lighter and stronger automotive materials, more effective cosmetics, and higher density memory storage for faster electronic and telecommunication devices. [source]
If you’re snowed in, take a look at some of the many beautiful images that are part of the “The Cell: An Image Library,” recently launched by The American Society for Cell Biology in collaboration with Glencoe Software, Inc. and the Open Microscopy Environment (OME). There’s no charge to use this online resource of digital images, videos, and animations. Check it out at http://cellimagelibrary.org or submit your own images to the project. You may also want to browse new technical data on microspectroscopy and microscopy now available under “Support” on the CRAIC Technologies website, www.microspectra.com. The site also has new features such as customer forums and enhanced search capabilities.