1950 RCA Tabletop Electron Microscope

Check out this beautiful example of Atomic Age design from RCA. This microscope was marketed as an affordable alternative to a typical Scanning Electron Microscope. "So simplified is the new instrument that a high school student or unskilled laboratory technician can quickly learn to use it!"
This is the cover from a twelve page brochure detailing the features of the RCA EMT Tabletop. The advertisement boasts a maximum magnification of 6,000x. Today's SEMs are capable of magnifications beyond 100,000x.

Colorized Bacteria

This is an SEM image of bacteria infested mouse intestine. It took me several evenings to colorize it with Photoshop. Those tiny bacteria took forever to loop. The sample was provided by Ivalyo Ivanov of the Littman lab in the NYUMC Skirball Insitute. Click to enlarge.
I worked on this sample on a Zeiss Environmental SEM called the EVO but couldn't get very good results. So, we decided to work directly with Zeiss to get improve them. My boss traveled to Harvard and worked with Doug Wei from Zeiss on another Zeiss microscope called the VP Supra SEM. The difference between the EVO and the Supra is that the EVO can image wet samples but has a tungsten filament. The combination produces lower resolution images. The Supra can do variable pressure EM so there is a little more sample prep involved, but you don't have to coat the sample with metal, and this microscope also uses a Field Emission Gun that produces images with much better resolution. We've applied for a grant to purchase this instrument. If it's approved we can get one for our lab and do similar work.
To the right is the original image. It was taken on the Zeiss VP Supra by Doug Wei and colorized by me in Photoshop.

Armadillidiidae gonna eat you

Along the same lines as the guppy teeth, here are a couple of neat images I took of an Armadillidiidae (sometimes called a potato bug or pillbug).
I remember my friend trying to fry one of these guys with a magnifying lens when we were kids. The poor thing rolled up in it's little ball and a minute later we heard it sizzling. But I guess that's no worse than what this guy went though in order for me to be able to put him into the microscope. Sample processing for SEM of biological material consists of fixation with aldehydes and Osmium tetroxide, dehydration with a graded series of alcohol, something called critical point drying, and finally sputter coated with gold. Obviously the insect wasn't alive during all of this. I put him in the refrigerator beforehand. The cold puts them into a sleeping/hibernation mode. Likely he felt no pain.
These images were captured on a Hitachi 2700 SEM.

D'na..d'na, d'na, d'na, d'na..wrEEEEEEEE! *jaws theme*

Did you know that guppies have teeth? I didn't 'till i put it in the SEM. This is another one from the guppy embryos back in school.

These images were taken on a Hitachi2700 SEM.

Cancer Cells

Here's a neat video of some cancer cells imaged by the Cancer Research UK Electron Microscopy Unit, based at the London Research Institute.

Cancer cells are interesting. They don't communicate with other cells, don't seem to die off like normal cells (apoptosis), and they divide rapidly and invade the body. It is like the equivalent up having thousands of tiny foreign objects into your body.

DLP Mirrors

Here's another entry of some images from when I was back in school. One day, my professor (Bill Carmichael at MATC Madison) brought in a DLP chip from a DLP projection television. The concept of how a DLP television works is quite unique. The chip is set up as an array of tiny little mirrors. Each one moves individually to project tiny bits of the image. With most DLPs, each mirror is responsible for one pixel.


Due to a mishap in the sample preparation of the chip, some of the mirrors fell off of their mechanical posts. This turned out to be a happy accident as it exposed the machinery so that more than just an array of mirrors could be seen. I captured these images on a Hitachi 2700 Scanning Electron Microscope. Click on each image to enlarge them.

A few pics

Let's add some fun pics. I've been in the EM field for a few years now. Here are a few images from back in school. All can be clicked to view them larger. More current work will follow.
This is a diatome. In the background are broken up ones. This was gathered from some diatomaceuos earth that we bought to keep slugs away from the veggies we were growing. The image was gathered with a Hitachi 2700 SEM and colorized in Photoshop.


This is some moss I found growing between two pieces of sidewalk. The image was gathered with a Hitachi 2700 SEM and colorized in Photoshop.


Here are a few images of some gills from a guppy embryo. Some were freeze fractured with liquid nitrogen to expose the contents. The images were gathered on a JEOL 840 SEM. One was colorized in Photoshop.