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by BECKY BUSH
Intern News Reporter
Appalachian State University’s microscopy facility has received a $509,620 grant to purchase a transmission electron microscope.
A team of five faculty members consisting of microscopy facility director Guichuan Hou, biology professor Howard Neufeld, assistant professor Nathan Mowa, assistant biology chairperson Sue Edwards and physics and astronomy professor Phil Russell co-wrote the grant and were recently awarded the money from the National Science Foundation.
The microscope could take up to three years to arrive at the university due to a lack of adequate housing space, though it is expected to come in the spring of 2010, Hou said.
The microscope is
both a transmission electron microscope and a scanning transmission
electron microscope, or TEM/STEM, which means it provides analytical
measurements for composition and structural properties.
“A
regular electron microscope only allows a researcher to see the outside
of a structure,” Hou said. “The transmission electron microscope sends
an electron beam through the structure, so you can see the middle of
the sample.”
Mowa said the benefit of the microscope is in its resolution, because it can see 200,000 times more than an ordinary microscope.
“It’s big,” Russell said. “It’s about seven feet tall and about the size of a desk.”
The
microscope will mostly be used for research, Russell said. In addition,
chemistry and physics majors will also have the privilege of using the
microscope.
“It’s a
huge benefit,” Hou said. “So many research projects are waiting for
this TEM/STEM. There are fully-founded biology effects waiting for
this, for teaching.”
Hou
plans to conduct his own research with plant root development. He
intends to study how the plant can develop, from single cell to
multi-cell development with the new microscope.
Russell
plans to conduct nanoscience and nanotechnology research with the
microscope by looking at solar cells, which convert light into
electrical energy.
“I plan to do research looking at the size, structure and chemical properties for lots of different applications,” Russell said.
Mowa’s
interests are in the birth process. Specifically looking at the birth
canal, Mowa wants to find out the reason for the birth canal opening
during pregnancy. By looking at the canal, he hopes to discover why
premature babies are born.
This
type of microscope allows students to look at things inside the cell at
a resolution that is extremely high in a manner not possible with an
ordinary microscope, Mowa said.
“The
microscope will open the eyes of the community and the students into
the microscopical world,” Hou said. “We cannot see with our bare eyes,
only with a microscope can we see.”
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