In this Issue

ARTICLES

The Hidden Secrets of Dinosaur Eggs Revealed Using Analytical Scanning Electron Microscopy
Patrick Trimby and Gerald Grellet-Tinner

In this article we take a new look at the structure of fossilised eggshells, using an advanced scanning electron microscopy technique: electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The resulting maps, highlighting the crystallographic structure of the shells with sub-micrometre resolution, are both beautiful and essential for the rigorous characterisation of the shells. We demonstrate how this new application of a technique predominantly used in materials science can assist palaeontologists with the complex task of assigning dinosaur eggs to specific taxa.

Broad Vision: The Art & Science of Looking

Microscopy and related imaging technologies have a profound effect on our understanding of the world, making visible the invisible and making known the unknown. The technologies themselves do not provide passively the answers; humans are inquisitive animals and it is the questions we choose to seek answers to that spur our progress. We are also tribal animals under social pressures to conform. The higher the level of indoctrination the greater is the risk of falling foul of our peers by asking dumb questions. Some of us are drawn towards the sciences in seeking answers; some of us turn to the arts to make sense of our constantly changing world. Simplistically we could frame this arts-science divide as subjectivity versus objectivity, but the philosophical spectrum is not black and white - art and science do not exist, and never have, in isolation from one another.

From an Amateur’s Perspective
Malcolm J. Reade

My interest in microscopes and other optical instruments has been with me from a very early age. As a nine year old I owned a very small student’s instrument, with one of each objective and ocular lenses. It had no focussing mechanism, just a chromed brass tube sliding through a split body. It did have a revolving mirror below, however, for projecting light through a slide.

emc2012 Update

The planning of emc2012 is very well advanced, and the First Call for Papers has been made. The Conference sessions are arranged within four symposia that cover “Applications” and “Tools and Techniques” across both the Physical and Life Sciences. Full details of all the sessions can be found on the emc2012 website along with an electronic version of the First Call for Papers. You can help support the event by downloading the PDF and circulating it to colleagues. Our aim is to see a copy pinned to every Departmental notice board.

RMS Vice-President’s Fund Award Winner 2010: CancerScapes Progress Report

The aim of this exciting project is to make available to the general public a series of high resolution whole slide microscopic images of cancer together with descriptions of the importance of microscopy in cancer diagnosis, the underlying morphology of different cancers in easy to understand terms and contributions from the public on cancer and how it has affected them. The coordinating team in Belfast has now recruited i-Path Diagnostics Ltd to host and serve the whole slide images. This requires dedicated software to be able to move around the slide in real time, increase magnifcation and focus the sample, all via a standard web-browser and available to the world. i-Path specialise in this software and already host large volumes of virtual slides for Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

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