Electron Microscopy Methods and Protocols (Volume 17 of the Series on Methods in Molecular Biology), Edited by M.A. Nasser Hajibagheri 1999. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. xi + 281 pages. ($89.50)

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 373-373
Author(s):  
Moise Bendayan
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
To Come ◽  
Molecular Morphology

At first glance, this book seems to come up short with regard to the application of electron microscopy in biological sciences. However, one has to consider that it is part of a series on molecular biology. The purpose here was not to collect a large variety of techniques related to electron microscopy but rather to focus on methods in molecular morphology. In this context, the book offers 15 short (some very short) chapters dealing with morphological approaches related to and used in molecular biology.

Electron Microscopy in Molecular Biology

1967 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
Cecil E. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Noise Level ◽  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Material Structure ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Shadow Casting ◽  
Electron Image ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Very High

The visualization of organic macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, viruses and virus components has reached its high degree of effectiveness owing to refinements and reliability of instruments and to the invention of methods for enhancing the structure of these materials within the electron image. The latter techniques have been most important because what can be seen depends upon the molecular and atomic character of the object as modified which is rarely evident in the pristine material. Structure may thus be displayed by the arts of positive and negative staining, shadow casting, replication and other techniques. Enhancement of contrast, which delineates bounds of isolated macromolecules has been effected progressively over the years as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 by these methods. We now look to the future wondering what other visions are waiting to be seen. The instrument designers will need to exact from the arts of fabrication the performance that theory has prescribed as well as methods for phase and interference contrast with explorations of the potentialities of very high and very low voltages. Chemistry must play an increasingly important part in future progress by providing specific stain molecules of high visibility, substrates of vanishing “noise” level and means for preservation of molecular structures that usually exist in a solvated condition.

Scanning Electron Microscopy-cuticular Lesions on the Roundworm Ascaris Suum

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 114-115
Author(s):  
P. A. Madden ◽  
W. R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Freeze Drying ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Secondary Electron ◽  
Distilled Water ◽  
Freeze Dried ◽  
Silver Paint ◽  
To Come ◽  
Scanning Electron

The intestinal roundworm of swine is pinkish in color and about the diameter of a lead pencil. Adult worms, taken from parasitized swine, frequently were observed with macroscopic lesions on their cuticule. Those possessing such lesions were rinsed in distilled water, and cylindrical segments of the affected areas were removed. Some of the segments were fixed in buffered formalin before freeze-drying; others were freeze-dried immediately. Initially, specimens were quenched in liquid freon followed by immersion in liquid nitrogen. They were then placed in ampuoles in a freezer at −45C and sublimated by vacuum until dry. After the specimens appeared dry, the freezer was allowed to come to room temperature slowly while the vacuum was maintained. The dried specimens were attached to metal pegs with conductive silver paint and placed in a vacuum evaporator on a rotating tilting stage. They were then coated by evaporating an alloy of 20% palladium and 80% gold to a thickness of approximately 300 A°. The specimens were examined by secondary electron emmission in a scanning electron microscope.

Dynamical Scattering in Crystalline Biological Specimens. I. Criteria of Validity for Scattering Approximations

1975 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 192-193
Author(s):  
Robert M. Glaeser ◽  
Bing K. Jap
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Born Approximation ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Dynamical Effect ◽  
Crystallographic Structure ◽  
Electron Microscope Image

The dynamical scattering effect, which can be described as the failure of the first Born approximation, is perhaps the most important factor that has prevented the widespread use of electron diffraction intensities for crystallographic structure determination. It would seem to be quite certain that dynamical effects will also interfere with structure analysis based upon electron microscope image data, whenever the dynamical effect seriously perturbs the diffracted wave. While it is normally taken for granted that the dynamical effect must be taken into consideration in materials science applications of electron microscopy, very little attention has been given to this problem in the biological sciences.

scholarly journals Cryo-electron microscopy of vitrified specimens

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Dubochet ◽  
Marc Adrian ◽  
Jiin-Ju Chang ◽  
Jean-Claude Homo ◽  
Jean Lepault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
New Technique ◽  
Biological Matter ◽  
Cryo Electron Microscopy ◽  
To Come

Cryo-electron microscopy of vitrified specimens was just emerging as a practical method when Richard Henderson proposed that we should teach an EMBO course on the new technique. The request seemed to come too early because at that moment the method looked more like a laboratory game than a useful tool. However, during the months which ellapsed before the start of the course, several of the major difficulties associated with electron microscopy of vitrified specimens found surprisingly elegant solutions or simply became non-existent. The course could therefore take place under favourable circumstances in the summer of 1983. It was repeated the following years and cryo-electron microscopy spread rapidly. Since that time, water, which was once the arch enemy of all electronmicroscopists, became what it always was in nature – an integral part of biological matter and a beautiful substance.

Environmental SEM in a Multi-User Biological Sciences E.M. Unit

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 286-287
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Gilpin ◽  
Mohamed S. Baguneid
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Environmental Scanning ◽  
Environmental Sem ◽  
Imaging Mechanisms ◽  
Scanning Electron ◽  
The Ideal

Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) has matured into a mainstream technique in many areas of microscopy. Instrumentation has evolved and our understanding of some of the imaging mechanisms has progressed. However the majority of laboratories where ESEMs are located are based around the materials sciences. Despite the fact that ESEM is the only SEM instrument that permits liquid water to be present whilst imaging, the housing of such a microscope in biological EM units has been relatively rare. This authors laboratory is a multi-user EM unit based in a School of Biological Sciences. There exists the opportunity for basic biological scientists, clinical and pre-clinical medical and dental researchers to make use of such a resource. Indeed as the ESEM is housed alongside a conventional high vacuum instrument and a cryo high vacuum instrument there exists the ideal opportunity to carry out comparative studies.This study will examine a range of biological samples using ESEM, cryo SEM and dry high vacuum SEM.

Biological Applications of Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1205-1206
Author(s):  
Gilpin C. J.
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Environmental Scanning ◽  
Biological Applications ◽  
Elastic Bands ◽  
User Facility ◽  
Common Clinical Practice ◽  
Scanning Electron

Over recent years there has been relatively little experimental data produced by environmental scanning electron microscopy on biological applications. The author’s laboratory is situated in a multi-user facility based in a School of Biological Sciences and has examined a wide variety of samples over a 5 year period. The purpose of this paper is to present a number of biological applications, one in detail, in an attempt to illustrate the potential and pitfalls of the instrumentation.A study has been made of the elastic bands used in dental orthodontics as a method of moving teeth. It is common clinical practice to replace the elastic bands at 24 hour intervals as it is known that the bands lose their elasticity and thus effectiveness during this period. The present study has examined the structure of such bands at time intervals after stretching to clinically used extension on a former and immersing the bands in water.

Development of Wet Environmental TEM (Wet-ETEM) for In Situ Studies of Liquid-Catalyst Reactions on the Nanoscale

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pratibha L. Gai
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Environmental Tem ◽  
Nanoscale Imaging ◽  
Solution Gas

We present the development of in situ wet environmental transmission electron microscopy (Wet-ETEM) for direct probing of controlled liquid–catalyst reactions at operating temperatures on the nanoscale. The first nanoscale imaging and electron diffraction of dynamic liquid hydrogenation and polymerization reactions in the manufacture of polyamides reported here opens up new opportunities for high resolution studies of a wide range of solution–solid and solution–gas–solid reactions in the chemical and biological sciences.

scholarly journals Introduction: Diversifying the historiography of bacteriophages

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-538
Author(s):  
Neeraja Sankaran
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Bacterial Viruses ◽  
To Come ◽  
Historical Accounts

The essays in this special issue draw on a bank of diverse primary and secondary sources in different languages, to offer novel perspectives on the different directions that research on or with bacteriophages—bacterial viruses—has evolved over the century since they were first discovered. Looking beyond the established historical accounts of the discovery of the bacteriophages and their role as a tool in founding molecular biology, although these milestones are not ignored, papers in this volume offer insights into other investigative threads and figures that were either previously unknown or under-represented in history. Taken together they show that the bacteriophages have had a far richer and more diverse life in both scientific laboratories and written works than hitherto realized, and that more is yet to come.

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