A Review of Microscopy and Microanalysis 2000
by Jeanette Killius and Val Woodward
The Microscopy and Microanalysis 2000 meeting took place in Philadelphia the week of August 13-17 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. This was a joint national meeting of the Microscopy Society of America, the Microbeam Analysis Society, and the Microscopical Society of Canada. In addition to the meeting rooms, the Convention Center contained several very impressive works of art by local artists, making it a visual treat to roam the halls between sessions. The huge hall was across the street from the famous Reading Terminal Market - a delightful farmers market in the city. Many a visitor enjoyed a delicious lunch at the market during the week.
In salute to Philadelphia’s patriotic history, a colonial fife and drum corps greeted guests to the Opening Reception Sunday night. Inside, the Grand Ballroom of the Convention Center was transformed into the neighborhoods of Philly. You could visit the Italian market, Chinatown, a Philly sports bar or try your luck in Atlantic City. Visits by Ben Franklin and the Mummers Band added to the atmosphere. The food and camaraderie were both first-rate!
Technical session and posters began Monday and continued all week. Many topics were discussed including: ceramics, ESEM, multiphoton imaging, FIB, macromolecules, microorganisms, films and
coatings, biomaterials, plants, labeling, polymers, vascular casting, cryo microscopy and semiconductors. The depth of the program assured something of interest for everyone. Among the presenters was a poster by MSNO members Lorraine Siperko and Bill Landis on the AFM of collagen mineralization from avian tendon.
Monday night featured the MSA Presidential Happenings. MSA President Ken Downing handed out several awards including the Distinguished Scientist Awards to Kiyoteru Tokuyasu (Biological) and Severin Amelinckx (Physical), the Distinguished Service Award to Barbara Reine, the Outstanding Technologist Award to Nancy Crise Smith and 10 presidential scholar awards. The Burton Medal went to Eva Nogales of UC Berkeley. Jeanette Killius, Tech Forum Chair, presented the Professional Technical Staff Awards to Ken Grant from Wake Forest School of Medicine and Freda McDonald from the University of South Alabama. Wah Chiu spoke on the impact of science, education and public support on visualization of biological structures.
The annual Tech Forum Symposium was presented on Tuesday. The theme for 2000 was cryomicroscopy and the list of speakers read like a Who’s Who of the subject. Jeanette Killius chaired the morning session which began with Patrick Echlin from Cambridge Univ., UK, discussing "A Practical Approach to Low Temperature Analytical Microscopy". His discussion of the theory and reasons for using cryomicroscopy laid the groundwork for the other speakers. Kent McDonald, Univ. of California, combined conventional and cryo preparations to improve cell preservation. He compared peas to microscopy – fresh were the ideal specimen, canned were like a routine TEM prep, and frozen were the cryo prep sample. Kent utilized high-pressure freezing equipment and cryo protectants to freeze larger samples while reducing ice damage in biological tissues. Mike Marko, NY State Dept. of Health, showed the principles of cryotomography. He demonstrated how to obtain excellent resolution using an intermediate voltage TEM and computer software to create 3-D reconstructions of thick sections or suspensions of organelles that are plunge frozen in liquid ethane. Alan Robins from Gatan, UK, gave a review of numerous applications of cryomicroscopy – lipstick, ice cream, fungal spores, concrete, paint, ink, paper – while stressing the importance of careful processing.
Valerie Woodward chaired the afternoon session. Helmut Gnägi, Diatome, presented tips on getting the most out of diamond knife sectioning of cryo samples. Suggestions on everything from the microtome settings to diamond knife care to sectioning technique to section collection were given. Olga Shaffer, Lehigh Univ., talked about the importance of cryomicroscopy in the study of latex. Standard prep methods for TEM/SEM examination of latex will often result in particulate distortion, an artifact resolved by cryo preparation and viewing of latex with a cold stage. Also, sectioning difficulties are overcome by freezing the latex film first.
Tuesday night was the annual Night Out at the Ballpark. Guests were treated to a Phillies vs. Diamondbacks game at Veterans Stadium. The weather was perfect and the game was a good one. Unfortunately for local fans, the D-backs prevailed but everyone had a fun time in what has become a traditional outing during the conference.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vicky Bryg introduced the 2000 Outstanding Technologist Award winner Nancy Crise Smith in the Special Topics session. In the early 1980’s, Nancy was instrumental in developing the capability for all 23 campuses in the California State University system as well as K-12 classrooms to be able to use a central SEM. Dr. Christopher Morgan developed software that would connect the microscope controls to a remote PC keyboard. This enabled scientists, college students and children across the state to access the instrument for research projects.
Some excellent polymer microscopy papers presented, of interest to researchers and industrial microscopists alike. The usage of energy-filtered TEM and EELS is gaining more ground each year, and is a welcome alternative to staining; however, as with the EAFM above, the capability does not come without a sacrifice of some money, for the adjunct equipment is expensive. It was nice to see some practical polymer microscopy papers this year, as well, especially those that addressed the issue of morphology influence on the performance of some engineering plastics, and methods for obtaining that structural information in a timely and informative manner. Also of note were the AFM papers that dealt with the surface structure of thin polymer coatings on substrates, and the effect of temperature and environment on the morphology and quality of the coatings. Several of these papers came from Phil Russell’s group at North Carolina State University.
The Exhibit Hall held a record number of vendor booths. Vicky Bryg chaired the Tech Forum portion of the new MSA booth, which was centrally located on the show floor. This arrangement continues to draw many visitors to the area. Val Woodward toured the exhibits to compare the big 4 EDS vendors (EDAX, Noran/Kevex, Oxford, and PGT) and found their major selling point was a form of spectral imaging. (Remember Ian Anderson’s presentation at the Winery at Wolf Creek this past spring.) The commercial systems do not and cannot have the breadth of Anderson’s ORNL equipment (just for sheer lack of computing power) to handle all the data. But they do have the capability to give both compositional and image data for each pixel acquired, and in a relatively quick and accurate fashion. Otherwise, the improvements in EDS are arising more from the PC computing side of things. Developments in the microcalorimeter detector field are promising for commercial application in the near future, but for the present, the cost is still prohibitive for the typical industrial and university user.
Thursday morning the Tech Forum Roundtable discussion covered Safety in the Microscopy Lab. José Mascorro chaired the session with the panel members E. Ann Ellis (university), Eileen Boylston (government), and Sandy Silvers (industry). Each presented a summary of safety training and requirements at her respective facility. A spirited discussion ensued between panelists and the audience involving such areas as: safe chemical disposal, proper protective wear, regulation enforcement, eliminating latex in the lab, hood and ventilation problems, and training service repairmen on safety. This session provided information on how others handled similar problems in the hope that we could all work a little more safely in our labs.
The conference
concluded Thursday afternoon. Many thanks to the Local Arrangements Committee
chaired by Stacie Kirsch of Electron Microscopy Sciences for a wonderful meeting.
M&M 2001 will be held in Long Beach, CA August 5-9. Mark your calendars
and make plans to attend now!
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by Kathleen Doane, Ph.D.
The Spring meeting was held at a beautiful venue, the Wolf Creek Winery. Although the weather did not cooperate, the views of the vineyards were spectacular. The meeting commenced with a wine and cheese prelude, featuring several of Wolf Creek Winery's excellent wines. Sponsored by Jeff Gschwend of EDAX, this was a lovely start to the meeting.
Following the wine and cheese reception, a tour of the winery was offered. This tour provided a facinating look at all facets of wine production, from harvesting to bottling. Dinner was served buffet style, and consisted of beef tips, roast turkey, and vegetable lasagna. All were excellent, as were the accompanying side dishes and desserts.
Following dinner, the newly elected officers were presented to the membership at a Business Meeting. These officers included Ed Boyd as President-elect, Jay Mansbach as Trustee, and Bill Butler as Treasurer. (See "Welcome New Officers" elsewhere in this newsletter.)
Next, Dr. Ian Anderson of ORNL presented an outstanding talk on "Spectrum Imaging: Microanalysis for a New Millennium." Dr. Anderson's talk was supported by an MSA Grant-in-Aid and as an MAS Tour Speaker. Dr. Anderson is the Leader of the Microscopy & Microanalytical Sciences Group in the Metals and Ceramics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and currently serves as a Director of the Microbeam Analysis Society.
Dr. Anderson first discussed what spectrum imaging is: acquiring a full EDS spectrum at each pixel that is imaged, resulting in very comprehensive characterization of a microstructure and its element, and more importantly, its phase composition. Although this technique is quite powerful, one drawback is that it generates extremely large raw data sets, currently tens of megabytes and soon to be gigabytes, which much be "mined" to extract the relevant information. Dr. Anderson discussed current user needs for this system: it most be robust, and thus work for all data sets, providing a stable analysis that doesn't get lost on tangents, and it must be objective. Objectivity means the system must function with no input from the operator, have no adjustable parameters, and must be able to identify all spectrally distinct parameters. Attaining these objectives would result in a fully automated system. Linear multivariate analysis, methods developed by Dr. Anderson, can be used to mine the data set and distinguish microstructural features. Dr. Anderson states that spectrum imaging can be applied to analysis of a variety of structures, including metals, ceramics, semiconductors, and polymers.
After sampling the wines available at the Wolf Creek Winery, the meeting concluded with many members carrying bottles of wine purchased from the winery.
by Kathleen Doane, Ph.D. and Jeanette Killius
The MSNO fall meeting was held at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine on a lovely fall day in October (10/17/00). The meeting began with a wonderful wine and cheese reception, including broccoli cheese balls, and several wine selections kindly provided by Paul Miller of Gatan, Inc.; Sales Manager and Corporate Member.
Following the reception, Dr. Elizabeth Dumont, an evolutionary morphologist from the Department of Anatomy at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, gave an outstanding talk on the functional morphology of bat teeth. Fruit bats consume primarily fruit, and their teeth are subjected to high levels of dietary acids. Using scanning electron microscopy, Dr. Dumont demonstrated that one way bats prevent their teeth from being eroded by this acid is by simplifying the structure of their tooth enamel. Fruit bats have more closely packed enamel than insect-feeding bats. This allows less of the acid from their dietary fruit to penetrate and erode the enamel. Fruit bats have teeth that are shaped differently from other types of bats, allowing them to expose less of their tooth to the acids. Dr. Dumont presented a series of confocal images to demonstrate this point. Salivary pH also affects the morphology of bat teeth, with fruit bats able to buffer saliva better and thus protect their teeth. Taken together, these data indicate that fruit bats have evolved several ways to protect their teeth from destruction by acids from their favorite foods, and the importance of microscopy in investigating evolutionary patterns.
Dinner followed this presentation, and consisted of either chicken Marsala or vegetarian lasagna, both of which were lauded. A wide selection of desserts was available, including the ever-popular Kentucky Derby pie.
After dinner, Dr. Steven Eppel, from the Biomedical Engineering Department of Case Western Reserve University, gave an excellent talk on "Bone: an Ultrafine Model Composite". Dr. Eppel began by informing the audience that 2000-2010 has been declared the Bone and Joint Decade with over $250 billion to be spent on research involving musculoskeletal diseases in the U.S. He reported his current studies of the growth of collagen and its mineralization from the atomic level to the whole bone level (7 orders of magnitude), in order to understand bone structure and, practically speaking, apply that knowledge to improve hip and shoulder replacements. With atomic force microscopy, Dr. Eppel's laboratory is investigating the sizes for the tiny mineral crystals that grow between collagen molecules deposited on mica. From this work with collagen and crystals, Dr. Eppel theorizes that a collagen/mineral paste can be developed and applied to a metal hip implant to improve the bond between metal and bone to create a more durable implant. Such paste could hopefully allow bone to grow into the implant area and produce a more natural replacement that is better tolerated by the body.
We wish to thank Gatan and Paul Miller for sponsoring the reception and NEOUCOM for hosting the meeting. MSNO's next meeting will be in March, and current plans involve the University of Akron's Crystal Room as the meeting site (subject to change).
by Kathleen Doane, Ph.D.
MSNO has obtained many new members, both regular, student and corporate, in the past several months. We would like to welcome all of these new members to MSNO. MSNO offers many benefits, including informative technical presentations, access to many skilled microscopists in the Northeastern Ohio area, and this truly exciting newsletter. We hope to continue this membership trend, and we particularly wish to encourage students to join the Society. We are planning to have a "Student Competition" as part of the Spring meeting, and hope to offer a cash prize (or prizes) for the best poster(s). Yes, you can use any poster you have - it does not have to be made especially for this meeting! So get all of your microscopist friends, particularly student friends, to join MSNO and participate in the upcoming Winter and Spring Meetings and maybe even win some MONEY!
by Kathleen Doane, Ph.D.
MSNO has a new website! Our new URL is MSNEO.org, and this service is kindly being provided at no cost by Scott Rafferty of DigiBahn. MSNO.org, our first choice for a URL, was usurped just weeks before we made the committment to Digibahn. MSNO would like to thank Scott for his generosity in providing us with this service - we greatly appreciate it! The site is being maintained by a new webmistress, Sharon Combs, who is the NEOUCOM webmistress as well. Sharon is a professional whose outstanding work on the NEOUCOM website caused us to hire her to help maintain our website. MSNO plans to offer more on its website, such as membership forms, more links to Microscopy sites/Societies, Society news, and possibly even an on-line newsletter.
MSNO would like to thank our former webmaster, Dave Strecker, for all of his dedication in designing and maintaining of the old MSNO website. Dave volunteered his time and effort, as well as his own personal webpage, to allow MSNO to have a A "presence" on the web, and the MSNO board thanks him for this service.
by Kathleen Doane, Ph.D.
At the Spring 2000 meeting, several new officers were elected to the MSNO board. These new officers include Ed Boyd, President-elect; Jay Mansbach, Trustee; and Bill Butler, as always our Treasurer. Ed Boyd is a materials scientist employed by B.F. Goodrich (luckily their tires are OK). Jay Mansbach is with B&B Microscopes, as a corporate member of MSNO. Bill Butler is employed at Ricerca as a materials scientist. Exiting President Mike Mallamaci officially turned over duties to incoming President Kathleen Doane, of NEOUCOM. We congratulate these new officers and wish them much success.
Upcoming Meetings and Workshops
PITTCON 2001: A Voyage of Discovery, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 4-9, 2001. For more information, contact The Pittsburgh Conference, 300 Penn Center Boulevard, Suite 332, Pittsburgh, PA. PH: 412 825 3220 or 800 825 3221; FAX: 412 825 3224; expo@pittcon.org; http://www.pittcon.org
Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials, Oxford, UK, March 25-29, 2001. For more information, contact Rebecca Morden, 31/38 St. Clements, Oxford, OX4 IAF, UK. PH: 44 0 1865 248768; FAX: 44 0 1865 791237; info@rms.org.uk; http://www.rms.org.uk/current@20events.html
SCANNING 2001, New York City, NY, May 5-7, 2001. For more information contact Paula Pivnick, SCANNING 2001, P.O. Box 832, Mahwah, NJ 07430-0832. PH: 201 818 1010; FAX: 201 818 0086; scanning@fams.org; www.scanning.org
28th Annual Meeting of the Microscopical Society of Canada, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, June 6-8, 2001. For more information, contact Susan Belfry belfry@unb.ca or Gerry Bance gnb@unb.ca; http://msc.rsvs.ulaval.ca
Lehigh Microscopy School Short Courses, Lehigh, PA. SEM and X-ray Microanalysis, June 11-15, 2001; Introduction to SEM and EDS, June 10, 2001; Advanced Scanning Electron Microscopy, June 18-22, 2001; Quantitative X-ray Microanalysis, June 18-22, 2001; Analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy, June 18-21, 2001; TEM Specimen Preparation, June 19-21, 2001; Atomic Force Microscopy, June 19-22, 2001. For information contact Sharon L. Coe, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, 5 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA 18015-3195. PH: 610 758 5133; FAX 610 758 4244; sharon.coe@lehigh.edu; http://www.lehigh.edu/microscopy
SCIA 2001, Bergen Norway, June 11-14, 2001. For more information contact SCIA2001, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stavanger University College, P.O. Box 2557, Ullandhaug, N-4091, Stavanger, Norway. hubner@iod.krakow.pl; http://www.ux.his.no/scia2001/
Microscopy and Microanalysis 2001, August 5-9, 2001. For more information contact Mary Beth Rebedeau, The Rebedeau Group, 7000 W. Southwest Hwy., Chicago Ridge, IL 60415. PH: 708 361 6000; FAX: 708 361 6166; msa@tradeshownet.com; http://www.msa.microscopy.com/