When I was a kid I never really liked going to school. I was very quiet and shy and spent most of my time staying out of trouble, trying not to get noticed and hoping that the teacher would never call on me to answer a question.|
But in spite of my low educational profile I did have some inspirational moments while sitting in silence at my desk. In particular I can recall the high school science class when we were introduced to the hidden world of the microscope.
We were amazed by close-up views of human hair, cheek cells and anything tiny we could jam under the lens and magnify up to 1,000 times.
Scientist and engineer Rodney Herring must have had a similar experience when he was in school. For me it turned into a lifelong fascination with science and discovery. For Mr. Herring it led to a career designing and building sophisticated imaging devices.
His diagnostic tools are being used in medical research, environmental monitoring of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, and for scientific endeavours around the planet. His latest project has the potential to change the way we look at the physical world.
Ten years ago he envisioned the world’s most powerful microscope – an instrument strong enough to see things smaller than atoms themselves and the electrons that hold them together. This is a long way from those old school microscopes we used in science class to see a human hair. This microscope will show us things we’ve never seen before.
For anybody with an active imagination the world of science and technology is full of surprises. Whether we gaze out towards the edge of the known universe looking for evidence of life in other worlds or smash atoms together looking for exotic, new particles the discoveries are often surprising and amazing.
Rodney Herring’s dream will soon become a reality at the University of Victoria. His newest invention was built by Hitachi High Technologies in Japan and is currently being installed in a specially designed facility at the university, making that school a world leader in this field.
Mr. Herring’s latest device can see things 20 million times smaller than can be detected by the human eye.
The microscope will be powerful enough to view individual atoms and researchers will be able to manipulate electrons using a futuristic pair of mini-tweezers called an electron vortex beam.
It sounds impressive and it is.
Researchers will be working on a microscopic scale and may soon have the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level. Most people these days are familiar with the “nano” scale and terms like nanometre and nanosecond are common. This tool takes it down another level to the “pico” scale.
A nanometre is one billionth of a metre. A picometre is one trillionth. Who knows what tiny secrets are hiding there?
This new instrument is called STEHM, which stands for Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope. It weighs seven tons and stands 4.5 metres tall. You have to climb a ladder to place your specimen under the lens and then leave the room so the air currents will stop. STEHM is powerful but it is also very temperamental.
This microscope must be located in a self-contained room in the basement, anchored in bedrock and encased with insulation and galvanized steel. It is extremely sensitive to air pressure and temperature – even a passing cloud in the sky can affect its operation.
One obvious question arises. What can you do with an eyepiece like this? For one thing, Canadians are now able to participate and contribute to global nanoscience and are on the leading edge of pico technology.
It won’t be in operation until the fall but international physicists, engineers, biologists and medical researchers are already lining up to use this one-of-a-kind microscope.
The inventor says the uses of this scope are limited only by imagination. It will impact computer science, alternative energy research and especially the fields of medicine and medical technology. We will be able to view living cells directly including their DNA.
Chronic diseases like MS can be studied at the atomic level.
Once STEHM is fully operational this fall we will witness more amazing things as the small, small world around us reveals its hidden secrets. Thanks to nanoscience we can see it on the Internet as soon as it happens. I can hardly wait.
This sure beats looking at hair in science class.
