Who needs macro lens when you've got a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

[425nm]

I could spend all day pulling pumping things out of tank and throwing them under any kind of scope. I really want a dissecting scope for home, the old ones that get given away are always snatched up by the graduate students.
Are you using the nano tech institutes SEM?

Good luck with you patent application, those things are some serious paper work.

We were able to get a larger working distance but not high enough to get a complete shot of the crab, mainly just larger swaths of the carapace. It was more interesting to get higher mag shots. We did also try to get a shot of the mouth parts but sadly we just couldn't get at it (mounting wasn't quite right, that's what I get for getting someone else to do the mounting for me. Should hqve just skipped my biochem class).

I'll have some histology images of birdsnest in about a week I'll post. Just did a trichrome stain on some of them. Turned out fantastic. Sadly I don't have enough time left in the term to do any fluorosecence/confocal.

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Ha! Awesome stuff! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one around here that plays with these things. I'm actually walking over for 3 solid hours of SEM as I type this.

I love adding extra fun things in with my samples just to see what they look like. Once I get a patent filing in on one of my processes I'll post up some pics of a few nano-objects I made.

Are you able to drop the working distance to 20-25mm? It'll probably give you a bit more breathing room to to see more of the crab. I've always been curious to see the mouth parts in greater detail.