• Question: why do you like working with a micro scope

    Asked by Dean to Simone, Kieran, Hugh, Emily on 11 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Kieran

      Kieran answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      Working with microscope lets me see how my cells are responding to different materials and different treatments. We would’nt be able to see the changes in these cells without using microscopes!

    • Photo: Hugh Manning

      Hugh Manning answered on 14 Nov 2018: last edited 14 Nov 2018 12:20 pm

      I have to use microscopes quite often when I’m making my samples because without them I wouldn’t be able to see them. I use a light microscope to look at the surface of my material and verify that my nanomaterials are there, if I want to get a closer look I use a more powerful microscope called an Electron Microscope. This microscope uses electrons rather than light and requires that I put my sample in a vacuum! I like looking at things under this type of microscope as it can magnify thousands of times and give really detailed images of the surface, it can also make measurements and tell me the composition of the materials I’m looking at! Some everyday objects look amazing under the electron microscope!

      Like these images of plant pollon!

      The only issue with the electron microscope is that your samples need to be conducting, this is ok for my metal nanowires, but for things like the pollon or other biological samples they need to be coated in a very thin layer of metal, usually gold!

Comments