The Microscopy Today Innovation Awards were established to honor innovative microscopy-related products and methods that appeared in the previous year. Winning products and methods are selected on the basis of their importance and usefulness to the microscopy community. The innovations most likely to win are those that provide better, faster, or entirely new methods of analysis by some type of microscope or microanalytical instrument.

It is well known that females of some insects mate with more than one male before the ova are fertilized. The post-copulatory behavior of the sperm has been studied for decades, but until now there has not been a method to definitively determine the “ownership” of sperm within the female genital tract. In a very clever study, Mollie Manier, John Belote, Kirstin Berben, David Novikov, Will Stuart, and Scott Pitnick offer an answer to this dilemma .

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can produce striking three-dimensional images of biological cells and tissues with submicron resolution of surface morphology. Such cell surfaces are often complex blends of folds, extrusions, and pockets that may be necessary in the positioning of specific molecules within interaction range of each other. Thus, surface changes can have a spatial control over some molecular functions, and identification of select molecules at distinct morphological locations becomes critical to our understanding of total cell function.

Confocal microscopy is widely used in cell biology. Like other filter-based systems, traditional confocal microscopes are limited by the spectral bands established by each optical filter. As a result, emission spectra from labels and/or autofluorescence can be overlapped leading to spectral crosstalk and inability to quantify the amount of signal originating from each individual fluorescent species. The need for accurate quantification of in vivo cellular processes and in-depth knowledge of organelle development and microstructure led Monsanto to search for non-commercial microscopes that could achieve those goals. Through a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) established between Monsanto and Sandia Corporation in August 2006, we built a new 3D-hyperspectral confocal fluorescence imaging system, specifically designed to meet the analytical requirements of plant specimens.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been considered as a possibility for molecular electronics. Because DNA is able to recognize other molecules—other strands of DNA—and because it binds together with similar DNA strands in a very unique way, scientists have suggested the possibility of using DNA as an electronic circuit without having to build in any other circuitry. The DNA would bind with other similar DNA strands that it recognizes and then use the connecting properties of the DNA to create a self-assembled biological wire for electrical conduction. Until recently, uncertainty existed about whether DNA could conduct at all, and if it could, how well it could conduct. Scientific speculations ranged from DNA being a superconductor to a complete insulator. Recent research, however, by Dr. Sidney R. Cohen in collaboration with Dr. Ron Naaman and Dr. Claude Nogues of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Scanned Probe Microscopy Unit, in Rehovot, Israel, aided by the enabling technologies of ultra-high-resolution microscopy and negative-stiffness vibration isolation, has shed new light on the electrical transport properties of DNA, focusing on the capacity of single molecules of DNA to transport current along individual strands.

Digital images carry a great deal of information, but they should not stand alone. They need to be accompanied by experimental variables, equipment used, personnel involved, image-processing operations performed, and site information. It is essential to maintain a link between pixel data and experimental conditions associated with the picture.

In recent years there has been a virtual explosion in the world of art glass. New glass formulations have brought a host of new colors into the marketplace, and the availability of low-cost, high-quality torches and other tools has brought art glass to the hobbyist. In addition to burn risks and possible cutting injury, there are a number of less obvious hazards that should be known to novice glass workers. One of these is the presence of heavy metals in or on glass surfaces and possibly in the atmosphere immediately surrounding the work area, presenting both potential skin contact and inhalation hazards. This study examines the metallic surfaces generated on five glass colors commonly used in art glass jewelry.

Microscopy Today congratulates its first group of Innovation Award winners. The ten innovations described below move several microscopy techniques forward: light microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, electron microscopy, analytical microscopy, and specimen preparation. These innovations will make imaging and analysis more powerful, more flexible, more productive, and easier to accomplish.

Every time I meet scientists, I like to ask what got them interested in their field. So far, of all the myriad reasons I have heard, not one has said “I always enjoyed doing problems and answering multiple choice questions.”

Étienne-Jules Marey was born in Beaune, France, on March 5, 1830, to a wine merchant and a teacher. To satisfy his father's wishes, he decided to study medicine, attending the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Marey's fascination with both animals and mechanics inspired him to concentrate on physiology, and it was during his investigations of this field that he became involved in optics.

Ignazio Porro's primary contribution to optics was an innovative prism image erecting system that is commonly used in binoculars and stereomicroscopes, though he also invented and improved a number of other scientific instruments. Today Porro is often considered to have been ahead of his time in many ways. The Italian engineer received little acclaim or monetary compensation for his innovative devices, which only came to be fully appreciated and widely utilized after his death. In fact, when Ernst Abbe attempted to patent binoculars containing his own prism erecting system in 1893, the physicist was very surprised to find that someone else had invented and patented the design decades earlier. Despite his own intense work in the field of optics, Abbe had never heard of the inventor, a telling indication of Porro's difficulties.

p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) has been used to retard photobleaching in fluorescence microscopy, to increase the intensity of osmium staining , and to improve lipid preservation . Phend et al. used PPD to improve post-embedding immunolocalization in epoxy-embedded specimens; more recently, Brorson et al. recommended including 1% (wt/vol) PPD in all dehydration steps for post-embedding immunolocalization. Experience with a number of animal tissues and microorganisms has resulted in the following protocol, which has been used to improve post-embedding immunolocalization in specimens embedded in either epoxy resins or acrylic resins such as LR White and LR Gold.

Selected postings from the Microscopy Listserver from May 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010. Complete listings and subscription information can be obtained at http://www.microscopy.com. Postings may have been edited to conserve space or for clarity.