The Oberlin Review
<< Front page Arts October 13, 2007

Science, Art Inseparable in Oberlin Laboratory

At first glance, these images may not look all that familiar, but look again. All are pictures of common, daily animate and inanimate objects. Can you identify them? (Answers at bottom of page!)

Students in Scanning Electron Microscopy, a module course taught by Professor of Biology Yolanda Cruz, have been looking at samples at a resolution that can never be replicated by human eyesight. Traditional optical (light) microscopes in classrooms magnify approximately 1,000 times, but the scanning electron microscope can magnify up to 200,000 times. The scale for magnification is indicated by the bar on the bottom of each photo.

The class, which originated as a Winter Term project, is “intended to train students who are interested in how to operate a SEM,” said Cruz. Students bring in specimens to study, anything from toenail clippings to spiders to opossum sperm.

Oberlin currently owns one SEM, housed in the geology department. It is shared interdepartmentally, which “reflects the collaborative nature of research in the sciences,” according to Cruz. In 2001, Oberlin received a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, which made the acquisition possible.


 
 
   

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