Picture Perfect

MICROSCIENCE 2008 didn’t just give researchers and scientists a chance to meet and discuss the cutting edge of microscopical technology and techniques, it also gave us some fantastic pictures in the form of their micrograph competition. Here we show the best in all their glory   

The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) have confirmed that MICROSCIENCE 2008 - held in June - was the largest to date in terms of exhibition and conference size, as well as daily visitor numbers. With 2170 visitors over the full three days of the event, visitors came from every continent except Antarctica. In fact the RMS say that for the first time over 25% of conference attendees were international.

“Our plan is to continue to grow the conference. The increased attendance from outside the UK is evidence that we are heading in the right direction. I believe that everybody that attended this year will have seen that we are creating something special and I believe that we have a great platform on which to build for 2010,” said Rob Flavin, RMS Executive Director.

The flagship of RMS activities - which centre around communicating the role and value of microscopy in progressing science - MICROSCIENCE 2008 provided researchers, scientists and the industry as a whole with a varied and inspired insight into the fast-paced world that microscopy has become, with many new products and techniques introduced at the event.

The commitment of the RMS to securing the future of microscopy was demonstrated at the event through initiatives to train and financially assist attending scientists, particularly to encourage those in their early careers, who may have an immense impact on microscopy in years to come. The RMS Learning Zone once again proved to be a very popular aspect of the event, as well as the displays Micrograph competition finalists.

EM Life        

1st prize: By Steve Gschmeissner
SEM of mole nose to show specialised Eimers organs








2nd prize: By David Spears.
Thistle floret

3rd prize: By John Greenhorn.
Microscopy - The devil is in the detail

EM materials. 

1st prize: David McCarthy & Annie Cavanagh. Physical Science - Pharmaceutical Drug delivery Polymer ( polymethacrylic acid and the corticosteroid drug prednisolone) Dry formulation of polymers were adhered onto a SEM stub using double sided carbon adhesive discs, prior to viewing the sample was gold coated in an Emitech K550 Sputter Coater for 2 minutes at 20mA


2nd prize: By John Hinton. An Electron Back
Scatter Diffraction image of the texture of undeformed AISI430 ferritic stainless steel. This shows the starting material prior to deformation. Inverse pole figure (IPF) colouring allows the crystallographic orientation in the specimen to be interpreted in terms of the sample coordinates

3rd prize: By David McCarthy & Annie Cavanagh. A Crystal of Erythritol adhered onto a SEM stub using double sided carbon adhesive discs

1st prize: By Steve Lowry.
Portion of longitudinal section of hen's tongue.

2nd prize: By Kevin Mackenzie.
Water Flea (Daphnia) x10

3rd prize: By Louise Cole.
This micro-bicycle is less than 1 mm long (650 micron) and can only be imaged with a light microscope. It is made up of a collection of diatoms (Arachnoidiscus and Nitzschia) which have been arranged carefully on a microscope slide by Dr Klaus Kemp

LM Materials

1st prize: By Karl E Deckart.
Photographic fixing salt

2nd prize: By Olga Nesterenok.
Optical micrograph of a deformed polymer foil, polarized light, 5x magnification

3rd prize: By Matthew Thomas.
"The Running Man". Alpha laths formed during rapid cooling of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Captured using standard reflective light microscopy