3 August 2016
Under the Electron Microscope
The star shaped object visible in the center of the micrograph above is a zinc oxide crystal, which is attached to a supporting mesh made of amorphous carbon. Zinc oxide is a material widely investigated for potential applications in transistors, light emitting diodes and solar cells. This area of research focuses on finding cheap alternatives to already existing technologies. This could result in cheaper computers and smart phones, and cheap solar powered chargers for electronic appliances.
To create a micrograph a specialized digital camera is used (or alternatively, a frame grabber). The outcome is ordinarily a black and white image. These are then colorized through feature detection software or very occasionally even Photoshop! Above you can see the stamens of the meadowsweet flower as caught by an EM without any enhancement in terms of color - you can even see the pollen beginning to extrude on top of the anther. So, what you see here may not be exactly what you might encounter (color wise) if you were to do a Fantastic Voyage thing but rather it is used to clarify structure. Yet feature detection software is becoming extremely sophisticated. Moreover, the aesthetic effect is phenomenal. Take a further look under the electron microscope.
Here you can see chloroplasts which are organelles found in plant cells. They conduct photosynthesis. The plant above is, however, a weed and the little dots you can see on the chloroplasts are a herbicide which blocks one of the main enzymes used in chlorophyll biosynthesis. This puts a stop to photosynthesis which means no conversion of light to energy. Bye-bye weed.
You can see herbicide here again, as the yellow dots on this hugely magnified creeping thistle.
These are spandex fibers which have over the last five decades made sure that some items of our clothing retain their elasticity for much longer than they ordinarily would.
Zinc oxide again, but this time it has clustered and is layered in to a dome. Furthermore, it has embedded itself in to a nanostructured porous substrate (a tool for cell research). This is a by-product of controlled crystallisation, created in the research for components for sustainable energy devices. James Bendall, who created this image, called it the tortoise in the hair.
What you can see here is the body trying to cure itself. The yellow cigar shaped objects are tuberculosis bacteria. Around it is macrophage. A macrophage is a phagocyte, and these are the cells that protect us by attempting to ingest and harmful foreign objects. The name comes from the Greek phagein – to devour and the word cyte which denotes a cell in biology.
The spheres you can see here are spores created by the Emericella nidulans fungus. They produce the protein hydrophobin which makes the spores waterproof. A waterproof protein could be useful…
...And this is a potato, magnified 120 times.
If you have a digital camera or a hybrid car then the chances are that the energy source used for your batteries are these – metal oxide particles with lithium ions embedded in to them. If the power for your device does not come out of a socket then the battery will have something that looks like this as its energy source.
You don’t need to go to LV-223 when you have these right here on Earth. This is a soybean and what you can see erupting from its surface is a fungus known as soybean rust. Huge efforts are being made to find a way to control this as, once it attacks, it can destroy up to 80 percent of a harvest.
This is one way. Today many soybeans are treated, like the one above. The soybean has been coated with a product that forms a protective film around it – just one tenth the thickness of a human hair. It is hoped that this treatment will stop the soybean rust from gaining a hold on this important world harvest.
Ever had tooth decay? Caries is caused by bacteria - Streptococcus mutans which converts sugar left on the surface of your teeth in to acids. That acid then attacks and destroys tooth enamel causing cavities and bills. Here the blue Streptococcus mutans is being attacked by a man made bacteria, specifically developed to attack and kill it.
Finally, these are artificial spider’s webs. They were created using woven protein fibers and are 1,000 times thinner than a human air. It is hoped that they can help treat wounds in the future for a number of reasons. First, they are not known to cause any allergies and they are permeable by air meaning the wound can still breathe. Moreover, the body will break down the protein layer which will mean no plasters sticking to the wound when it is taken off. What goes around comes around – the ancient Greeks and Romans used spider webs to stem bleeding.
First Image Credit Flickr User EMSL
