Optical Surfaces Ltd. (OSL) has produced its ‘Practical Guide to Surface Quality’ – the  second in a series of practical guides for optics users.

The informative new 12-page guide is written to enable scientists and engineers better understand an optics quoted surface quality as surface imperfections are typically the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, and ambiguous of all optical specifications. Key reasons why surface quality is an important consideration in selecting optics are associated with cosmetic acceptability and often more importantly with the functionality / performance of the component. The presence of defects on the surface of an optical component can scatter light which in some circumstances may affect its performance...

Caltech engineers show how to make cost-effective, ultra-high-performance microscopes

Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a method to convert a relatively inexpensive conventional microscope into a billion-pixel imaging system that significantly outperforms the best available standard microscope. Such a system could greatly improve the efficiency of digital pathology, in which specialists need to review large numbers of tissue samples. By making it possible to produce robust microscopes at low cost, the approach also has the potential to bring high-performance microscopy capabilities to medical clinics in developing countries....

NanoSight, world-leading providers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, announces that more than 800 third party publications citing their Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) methodology have been published, and reflect on the significance of this powerful third party endorsement.

May 2013 saw publication of the 800th peer-reviewed paper citing NTA. It was written by Mark Davis and his group at Caltech: "Transcytosis and brain uptake of transferrin-containing nanoparticles by tuning avidity to transferrin receptor." It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America....

Multi-ion beam platform from ZEISS enables new solutions for the challenges faced in nanofabrication

At the Microscopy & Microanalysis trade show in Indianapolis, ZEISS ORION NanoFab received the 2013 Microscopy Today Innovation Award. Microscopy Today magazine annually presents this award to techniques and instruments that play a major role in progressing the field of microscopy. ORION NanoFab is a nanofabrication tool that integrates helium, neon, and gallium focused ion beams on a single platform. The helium and neon ion beams are based on the gas field ion source (GFIS) technology...

HORIBA Jobin Yvon S.A.S. (Palaiseau, France), operating worldwide under the name of HORIBA Scientific, is pleased to announce its recent agreement with AIST-NT (Novato, CA, USA) to distribute their Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) product line in most of Europe, China and South America.

AIST-NT is a manufacturer of advanced SPM systems designed specifically for integration with optical spectroscopy, and has been a partner of HORIBA Scientific for AFM-Raman and Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) system integration for several years. HORIBA Scientific is a leading spectroscopy equipment manufacturer, and is the leader in Raman microscopy. With the growing interest for nano-spectroscopy and TERS, HORIBA Scientific has collaborated with several SPM manufacturers to deliver a wide range of combined solutions...

Anasys Instruments reports on the announcement from the University of Illinois which describes the effect of nanometer-scale heating on semiconductor plasmonic microparticles which reveal surface plasmon resonance. The work is described in a paper published in Applied Physics Letters.

Recent progress in the engineering of plasmonic structures has enabled new kinds of nanometer-scale optoelectronic devices as well as high-resolution optical sensing. But until now, there has been a lack of tools for measuring nanometer-scale behavior in plasmonic structures which are needed to understand device performance and to confirm theoretical models...

Agar Scientific, a leading supplier of microscopy accessories and consumables, has launched a new web site. As well as providing the latest microscopy news about accessories and consumables, the site now offers customers full eCommerce capability – a site that delivers useful, current content digitally online.

Agar Scientific's new website presents visitors with comprehensive and current information on  all products together with availability, delivery options and prices to enable straightforward online ordering of materials for their laboratory. Visitors can now request online quotations. This has been specifically tailored for education/research departments where detailed purchase requisitions are frequently required prior to ordering. As would be expected, the new site brings visitors the latest news about new products, special offers including end of line bargains. It also offers sign-up for Agar news and electronic newsletters, particularly for exclusive offers...

Leica LMT260 XY Scanning Stage for a Repeatability of 0.25 µm at a Resolution of 5 nm

Leica Microsystems launches a high-precision scanning stage for stereo microscopes and macroscopes, the Leica LMT260 XY Scanning Stage. To ensure successful experiments, it offers a repeatability of 0.25 µm for samples weighing less than 0.5 kg, and of 1 µm for heavier loads of 1.5 kg. This repeatability is reached at a resolution of 5 nm. Such precision is especially interesting for users who perform time-lapse experiments such as mark and find, or multi-well screenings. "We know that every micrometer counts when imaging several samples at different XY positions", says Dr. Björn Fuchs, Product Manager, Leica Microsystems...

Multi-mode microplate readers are an indispensable laboratory instrument that enable many applications to be performed on multiple samples.

Life science applications involving cells are increasingly desired due to higher biological relevance associated with functional readouts. Microplate readers can provide quantification of a specific target, such as a protein or its post-translational modification, or phenotypes such as cell death through apoptosis or necrosis. Quantification is provided relative to assay controls and/or standards using dispersive optical detection and light collection with photomultiplier tubes (PMT)...

Xmark Media the organisers of Photonex 2013, the UK's showcase photonics conference & exhibition announce the programme and speakers for the meeting on Nano and Bio-Imaging. This FREE-to-attend conference will be held on Wednesday 16^th October as part of a diverse two-day event at the visitor-friendly Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Significant advances in the development of optical techniques have led to an inter-disciplinary use of photonics in the study of various problems in the life sciences, in biological and chemical sciences, in medicine, clinical sciences, neurophysiology etc. Researchers are continually looking for better ways to analyse complex processes....

JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, reports on how researchers from the Université de Paris-Sud and CNRS Montpellier have used the new QI mode of AFM imaging to quantitatively characterize living bacteria without any immobilization.

Dr Christian Marlière of the Institute of Molecular Sciences (ISMO) located at the Université Paris Sud, CNRS, Orsay leads a research team to study the dynamics and properties (mechanical, electrical and electro-chemical) of living bacteria in purely controlled physiological conditions at nanometer scale: motility or adhesion processes of bacteria on solid substrates, biofilms formation, the influence of light on moving properties of cyanobacteria, effects of antibiotics on bacterial membranes and biofilm etc....

iXon EMCCD camera's spatial resolution and high readout speed demonstrate possibility of finding more stars and planetary systems in our galaxy

With the accelerating interest in seeking out Earth 2.0 exoplanets, the need for accurate star maps on which to base our searches only increases. However, an international team of scientists has found two previously undetected stars in a recently mapped globular cluster using the ultra-sensitive Andor iXon 897 Electron Multiplying CCD camera on the Danish 1.54m telescope at La Silla, Chile. This discovery raises the possibility that we can pinpoint more potential target planets that would be hospitable to life...

Anasys Instruments reports on the recent publication from the University of Illinois which describes the development of a novel technique for chemical identification at the nanometer scale based on AFM-IR. The work is described in a paper published in the Review of Scientific Instruments 84.

For more than 20 years, researchers have been using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure and characterize materials at the nanometer scale. However AFM-based measurements of chemistry and chemical properties of materials were generally not possible, until now...

JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, reports on the research studies of the nanophysics group to couple the chemical information of STED microscopy with the high resolution spatial and force measurements provided by AFM to study biological samples in liquid.

The Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) was founded in 2003 in the city of Genova to promote Italy's technological development and advanced education. Professor Alberto Diaspro is the Director of the Department of Nanophysics. His research includes the design, realization and utilization of optical and biophysical instrumentation such as far-field super resolution optical microscopy and nanoscopy, conventional and confocal microscopy, two-photon fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy architecture, and scanning probe microscopy (STM, SNOM, AFM). This last area has led to collaborations with JPK Instruments... 

NanoSight reports on how Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, NTA, is being applied in the Chemical Engineering Department of the California Institute of Technology to study nanoparticle-based therapeutics being developed for the treatment of illnesses such as dementia and Alzheimer's.

The central theme of the Mark E Davis research group at Caltech is the use of chemical engineering concepts (synthetic chemistry and analytical engineering problem solving) to answer important fundamental questions in the physical and life sciences. Current research entails designs for the synthesis of inorganic and hybrid, organic-inorganic materials for catalysis and biocompatible materials for the delivery of macromolecular therapeutics...

Ultrahigh accuracy imaging modality (UAIM) technique provides more than 200% accuracy improvement compared with conventional low-light imaging

Super resolution localization microscopy techniques, which allow the capture of images with a higher resolution than the diffraction limit of approx. 250 nm, are breaking new ground in our understanding of subcellular structures and the movement of individual molecules within cells. However, the positional accuracy attained by these powerful techniques has been limited by the pixelation and noise generated by CCD and EMCCD detectors...

International panel of experts bestows seal of quality to products featuring outstanding designs

At the awards ceremony on 1 July 2013, the ZEISS Microscopy business group received the renowned red dot award: product design for the Axio Zoom.V16 zoom microscope. In 19 categories, the jury selected the product with the most successful product concept from the total 4,662 entries. Following the ceremony, the product will be on display in a special four-week exhibition at the red dot design museum at the Aalto Theater in Essen...

Oncodesign officially receives AAALAC's accreditation mark, in recognition of 18 years of consultation, investment and ethical commitment in the area of animal experimentation in cancer research

Oncodesign, a contract research laboratory for the discovery of new anticancer therapies, today announces that its Dijon-based research center has received AAALAC certification. AAALAC, the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, is an internationally recognized association for assessment and accreditation in the field of animal experimentation. AAALAC accreditation is a voluntary undertaking rather than a regulatory requirement. To date, more than 700 institutions in 29 countries have received this accreditation...

Cytation™3 is a cell imaging multi-mode microplate reader that combines automated digital microscopy and conventional microplate detection.  This unique patent pending design provides rich phenotypic cellular information with well-based quantitative data. 

Solentim system offers substantial economic benefits

Due to the significant time saving advantages of their Cell Metric^TM systems, Solentim, the market-leading developer of innovative tools for shortening steps in the upstream cell line development workflow, have had their best quarter of sales revenues to date. This includes multiple shipments of Cell Metric^TM systems to customers in the US and a repeat order from US biopharma. Cell Metric CLD^TM is a bench-top imaging station, which includes a 10 plate automated plate loader...

FLIR Systems has announced the FLIR Microscopy Stand - a complete solution for thermal evaluation of very small objects.

Comprising a FLIR SC5000 series thermal imaging camera with a x3 or x5 microscopic lens and high precision X,Y,Z stage for accurate positioning the FLIR Microscopy Stand is capable of accurate temperature measurement on targets as small as 3 microns square. Benefiting from a research-grade thermal imaging camera with a large focal plane array detector that delivers very low NETD and advanced design microscopic lenses the FLIR Microscopy Stand is able to deliver very high spatial resolution making microscopic thermal evaluation of electronic and photovoltaic components routine...

Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments report on the use of their popular THMS600 stage for polymer research at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Polymers (CNR), Italy.

A group of scientists from the CNR is investigating the melting kinetics of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a natural thermoplastic polymer with mechanical properties comparable to synthetic polymers. PHB is now the focus of scientific interest as it has commercial potential as a fully biodegradable and biocompatible product. Potential uses include environmentally friendly packaging and films, pharmaceutical drug administration, and biocompatible resorbable medical implants. Small batches of PHB have been produced since 1925 by bacterial fermentation, but until now there is no large scale commercial production because it is more expensive than commonly used polymers...