New microscope to advance research
For some, seeing things not visible to the naked eye is an amazing feat.
With the help of a powerful new microscope, NDSU will be able to easily view miniscule objects.
The Electron Microscopy Center at NDSU is buying a new low-vacuum scanning electron microscope. The Center received an award of more than $280,000 from the National Science Foundation that will fund the microscope, according to a press release.
The Center hopes to have the microscope up and running by the end of the school year in May.
Thomas Freeman, professor of botany, is responsible for NDSU acquiring the new electron microscope.
Freeman said the microscopes the Center has now can sometimes change the sample to where it is not completely accurate because they need to have the moisture taken out, but the new microscope will keep more moisture in, allowing for a more accurate sample.
“ When the water is taken out, it dehydrates before your eyes,” Freeman said. “It would be like trying to look at a raisin and trying to describe a grape.”
The microscopes the Center currently has are the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope.
The new low-vacuum scanning electron microscope will not only allow the Center to look at samples more accurately, but also allow classrooms around the state to view a sample over the Internet.
“One of the other new advantages is that it will have the capability of remote operation,” Freeman said. “So anybody on campus could use the instrument from their office, we can load the specimen into the microscope, and then over the Internet, they can manipulate the microscope.”
He said this would have a real advantage in large classes. For example, engineering, biology and vet science can use it in lecture classes.
The Center runs many tours for classes and it is hard for all students to see the specimen, he said.
“ If we would put it so they can load the sample here and they can run it from their laboratory or lecture hall, all the students would see the same specimen at the same time,” Freeman said.
Even at high schools, the teacher can use this to enhance learning, he said.
In order for people to learn how to use this new microscope, they must dedicate one semester to understanding all the parts of the microscope, he said.