The microscopic looking glass to the Microcosmos
By Jason Jonathan Joseph

Taking a trip down to the Electron Microscopy Unit at the Biological Sciences building can be quite intimidating at first. There’s all these machines and equipment that look like they’re ready to attack you. Then there are the really tall microscopes that don’t look like microscopes at all.

There’s this one really tall, grey cylinder that nearly touches the roof of the laboratory, with a computer just sitting next to it, hiding the microcosmos inside of it.

With the rollerball of the Scanning Electron Microscope, you can zoom in onto the butterfly’s wing 30 000 times that you even see the little bumps that the wing is actually made up of, and the tiniest spec of dirt that is just chilling on it, on the computer’s monitor.

Inside the tall, grey microscope, the Scanning Electron Microscope’s electron beam noiselessly and rapidly goes back and forth over the butterfly’s wing, a few grains of salt (that look like big cavernous cubes on the computer’s monitor), a prawn larva and a tiny little ant, sending some secret signals to the computer that generates detailed images that pop up on the computer screen.

The Transmission Electron Microscope, the electron microscope’s brother on the other side of the room, captures a 3D image of the specimen by sending an electron beam through the specimen to produce an image showing all the structure and layers the specimen is made up of, in such detail. But we don’t get to touch that one. He must be the angry brother, sending beams right through things…

On the white walls of laboratory are beautiful photos that were actually made by electron microscopes. A marriage of science and art. As Prof Alan Hodgson – our guide through the electron microcosmos – says, “ Microscopy is an art.” I think he meant actually working on the machines, but I think both apply.

Take a look through the electron microscopic looking glass for yourself: there are two more workshops tomorrow (Monday) from 14h00 - 15h00 at the Rhodes University Electron Microscopy Unit in the Biological Sciences building, for only R20.