When science meets art

Representatives of Carl Zeiss, a well-known maker of optical instruments (case in point: the lens of the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic's camera), were in IRRI today to demonstrate a new model of the confocal laser scanning microscope called LSM 710. I'm not sure how often I'd be able to use such a device, being involved in grain quality and cereal chemistry, but I'm sure researchers in the plant genetics and cell biology areas will find a lot of uses for this machine).

In the typical microscopes used in school, visible light is reflected onto a specimen (on a slide) by a mirror. Stains could be added to the sample for easier detection on a slide. The operation is highly manual (the user moves the slide, adjusts the mirror, turns knobs, and changes objectives). Because of its weight, the light microscope is pretty easy to transfer. The confocal laser scanning microscope, on the other hand, uses a laser beam to illuminate the sample, which is also on a glass slide. Fluorescent dyes are used to stain the specimens, which the laser beam excite. The result is a vividly coloured image such as the picture below.

These colours may not be true to what the eye sees under the lens (using visible light), but there's no need to look at the eyepiece once the specimen has been found on the slide. The image is transmitted to a computer, where all the editing can be done. With all the options available, the image editing software rivals what is usually applied to digital pictures from the usual point-and-shoot and DSLR. The laser generator, the microscope, and the computer add to the size and weight of the machine makes transportation of the system more complicated than the light microscope. 

With advances in microscopy, the smallest of objects can be seen and appreciated. There's even another technique called atomic force microscopy which can show how polymers are arranged inside a starch granule! Victor J. Morris lectured on this during the Starch 2008 conference in Nottingham, UK, and presented pictures that could help interpret the behaviour of starch in certain conditions. But that's a different story.

In college, I only read about this technique. But now, I have seen the instrument... it has become something tangible! And it's another form of photography too!