Nov. 07, 2011

Lensfree Optical Tomography

Light microscopy has traditionally relied on lenses to create microscopic images of small objects. Exploiting the recent advances in sensor technologies and digital processing algorithms, lensfree on-chip holographic microscopy takes a different approach to achieve high-resolution optical imaging without compromising the field-of-view. Along these lines, here we present a lensfree optical tomography approach for high-throughput on-chip 3D microscopy applications. moreNov. 02, 2011

Imaging Motile Malaria Parasites

Cell motility is an essential process for most uni- and multi-cellular forms of life. The study of evolutionary ancient and thus divergent cells can yield interesting insights into our very basic understanding of molecular processes conferring cellular motility. The Plasmodium sporozoite represents a unique cell that migrates in vitro in near perfect circles due to its crescent shape. This allows the combination of high throughput imaging with reverse genetics to dissect how these cells move. moreOct. 26, 2011

Preparation of TEM Samples

A special method of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) samples preparation is described in this article. Rapidly solidified alloy have very fine structure formed by matrix and intermetallic phases. Common TEM sample of bulk material allows observe the distribution of intermetallic particles but not their detail characteristic because of their small size. To describe the intermetallic phases is necessary to extract them from matrix. It is possible to do that by selective matrix dissolution in the solution of tartaric acid and iodine in methanol. moreOct. 11, 2011

Filtration Membranes, Water and the ESEM

Great progress in the filtration performance of microfiltration membranes has been achieved in the past few years. As a consequence the structures of the respective membranes have become more and more intricate. New microscopic characterization methods are therefore necessary to reveal the membrane structure in full detail. The environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) has the potential for also studying microfiltration membranes in their wet state. The dynamics of the wetting and drying of the membrane surface can be imaged at sub-µm resolution. moreOct. 03, 2011

Electron Diffraction on Barium Titanate Crystals

Apart from the domain structures that were discovered on BaTiO3 single crystals by means of TEM, there are a couple of unusual effects we know very little about. Some of these effects that require further research are transition structures, or optical radiation which accompanies the diffraction of electrons close to the temperature of phase transition as well as far below. Impact of neutrons or other heavy particles forms many spots on the surface of the negative (fig. 1.)

Introduction
moreSep. 26, 2011

A New Twist to Quantum Dot Tracking - New Nanoparticle Changes Color Continuously

There are three issues, all of which are related to blinking, in quantum dot-based particle/molecule tracking. The recently reported "non-blinking quantum dots" address only one of the three issues. Here we report a new class of quantum dot-based composite nanoparticles that emit fluorescence with continuous intensity and alternating color, effectively addressing all three blinking-related issues, as well as providing greatly enhanced brightness compared with single quantum dots. moreSep. 19, 2011

VM12 Strengthing by Precipitates - TEM Study of Precipitates in the Martensitic VM12 Steel

Martensitic VM12 steel was recently developed for advanced coal-fired power stations. Its creep resistance is dependent on a stability of microstructure. Destabilization of microstructure is caused by recovery and softening processes of a tempered martensite and depends on changes of a dislocation substructure and morphology of secondary particles during creep. Quantitative TEM analyses of VM12 steel were ­undertaken to determine the microstructure parameters after creep at 625°C up to 30.000h.

Experimental
moreSep. 12, 2011

Synthetic Biology - A New Way to Access Biological Phenomena

The history of cell and molecular biology displays an arms race between biological challenges and their technological solutions, regarding the detection and analysis of ever smaller structures and processes. For a long time, advancements in microscopy have kept pace with scientific motivations. But since fundamental physical laws cannot be simply overcome, appropriate instruments need to become more and more complex if modern biology does not simply want to stand still due to technical limitations. more