New Microscope Captures 3-D Cellular Action in Real Time.
Author: Rosanne Skirble
Date: October 23, 2014 7:09 PM
Link: http://m.voanews.com/a/new-microscope-captures-3d-cellular-action-in-real-time/2494472.html
Summary:
A new microscope developed by Eric Betzig is able to allow us to view cells in real time. Eric, who works at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, won the 2014 Nobel prize for chemistry for the development of a microscope that allowed the viewing of an individual molecule. Now however he has taken his research in a different direction, more focused on "seeing fast dynamics without damaging the cell". This is done by sending out a plane of light rather that a beam, reducing the damage to the cell while allowing for high speed imaging. This microscope will allow scientists to better understand and prevent the spread of diseases.
Connection:
This connects to class because it's about the observation of cell structure, which we are currently learning about. We've been learning about the different structures or animal, plant and prokaryotic cells, as well as the different organelles and their functions. This article is about the development of a device that allows for better observation of what were currently studying. In addition this will allow us to learn about what happens in real time. Currently we only know what happens in a snapshot but this device will allow us to really see what happens inside a cell, in motion. This microscope may revolutionize what is taught in this course in the near future.
How would the price of the microscope developed by Eric Betzig compare to the price of a typical optical microscope used in a lab?
ReplyDeleteHow does this new microscope function in terms of its usage as opposed to the ones that we are currently using in class (procedure)? Would this video of the "worm" have to be recorded with a camera, or would it be directly visible to the human eye by looking through a scope/etc.?
ReplyDeleteThe microscope differs from the ones we have used in class in that it takes a more detailed image of the cell's internal structure while the ones that we use only allow us to see the surface and one or two large internal organelles such as the nucleus. And the images is recorded by a camera. no the human eye.
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