Amoeba - Scanning Electron Microscope images

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Ecki
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Amoeba - Scanning Electron Microscope images

Post by Ecki »

<disclaimer mode on>
Looking at Scanning Electron Microscope images gives a very different perspective as the amount of detail is sometimes overwhelming. Also, the image is comparable to a reflected light image - no details of the inside are revealed.

As I have very little comparable reference images, it is hard to say whether things are artefacts of the preparation or "real".
<disclaimer mode off>

Having said all this, here are some images of an amoeba. The amoeba has a very interesting pattern on it's cell coating. Amoebas very often have stowaways, here a fairly large diatom. The smaller diatom in the foreground is just being eaten.
Image

Image

Image

Looking at microbes from the top is pretty boring, you want to tilt the stage. This gives very nice and fascinating perspectives in very small dimensions: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... =choano%2A

With the Scanning Electron Microscope, the beam comes from the top and the detector is at the side, at an angle of approx. 45°. To compare this with a light microscope, this is as if your light comes from 45° and your lens is parallel to the specimen. If you tilt the image in the direction of the detector (the light) there are areas that will have shadow. In addition to this, edges emit more electrons and thus tend to be overly bright which easily results in clipping. To make matters worse, when I sit in front of black and white images in a darkened room all evening, my sense for correct image brightness seems to get confused, too.

I am sometimes struggling with post processing of SEM images. I can take 256 bit TIFF images, up to approximately 3000x2000 pixels. Ideas and tips for post processing are highly appreciated. At the moment I am using Topaz details.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy these images.

Best regards
Ecki

Fredlab
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Post by Fredlab »

wow...
amazing.

Thanks.
I apologise for my poor english
My blog (Macro Micro World)
My gallery

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

FredLab wrote:wow...
amazing.

Thanks.
The English is perfect!!


Ecki - are you telling us you have a new toy in your shed? :smt118

JH
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Post by JH »

Very interesting!

Regards Jörgen

Bruce Taylor
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Post by Bruce Taylor »

Those images are just staggering, Ecki. Absolutely wonderful.

leonardturner
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Post by leonardturner »

Very good images. I can be of no help to you, as my SEM experience was many years back, but I am curious. How do you keep the amoeba from totally desiccating in the vacuum of the SEM? Does the gold coating persist even if the organism disappears?

Thanks--

pwnell
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Post by pwnell »

Really well done. I wish we have more SEM / TEM images - the details and 3D structures they reveal is just incredible. Keep them coming.

RogelioMoreno
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Post by RogelioMoreno »

Ecki,

Very nice, a love the details, please more.

Rogelio

Ecki
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Post by Ecki »

Ecki - are you telling us you have a new toy in your shed?
The toy is not in my shed but in my new lab in the basement - on a 1800 kg block of concrete :mrgreen:

Thanks for the nice comments and yes, there will be more.

Best regards
Ecki

carlos.uruguay
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Post by carlos.uruguay »

Impressive images, thank you for sharing!

Jacek
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Post by Jacek »

I really like high magnification is impressive

Olympusman
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Amoeba

Post by Olympusman »

Nice shots, but how do you preserve an organism that is over 90% water to be photographed in a vacuum? From what I know you infuse the protozoa with a uranium compund, but I find it hard enough to apply chemicals in light microscopy.
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

g4lab
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Post by g4lab »

Ecki's new toy is wonderful as are the images.

Is it an environmental SEM. Some of those have the capability to look at , for example , live specimens. They don't subject the specimen to high vacuum and don't require dessication.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Indeed a wonderful image.

I'm guessing freeze-dried.

Environmental SEMs are great for imaging the surface of subjects that have water in them, but they won't see through bulk water where the amoeba would be when alive.

--Rk

Ecki
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Post by Ecki »

These are high vacuum mode images. The preparation process was similar to the one I explained here: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=electron

Best,
Ecki

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