the Imaging Technology Group
the NASA and
the National Science Foundation
This web page, part of the Virtual Microscope Project, features interactive animations that illustrate the basics of imaging in the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the Fluorescence Light Microscope (LM), and the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Also included are videos demonstrating how to prepare samples for each type of microscope. Don't miss the interviews with scientists who discuss career paths that utilize microscopy in both the public and private sectors.
The Virtual Microscope provides cost-free simulated scientific instrumentation for students and researchers worldwide as part of NASA's Virtual Laboratory initiative. This site supports and shares data from all three instruments: SEM, LM, and AFM. Automated data capture software is shared with users via a Java application that provides a simulation of the group's actual microscope interfaces. The magnification controls allow the user to explore any point of interest on the sample and provides access to a robust set of specimen annotation tools.
Please note that this resource requires
Please note that this resource requires
6-8: 1C/M6. Computers have become invaluable in science, mathematics, and technology because they speed up and extend people's ability to collect, store, compile, and analyze data; prepare research reports; and share data and ideas with investigators all over the world.
3. The Nature of Technology
3A. Technology and Science
6-8: 3A/M2. Technology is essential to science for such purposes as access to outer space and other remote locations, sample collection and treatment, measurement, data collection and storage, computation, and communication of information.
3C. Issues in Technology
9-12: 3C/H6. The human ability to influence the course of history comes from its capacity for generating knowledge and developing new technologies—and for communicating ideas to others.
4. The Physical Setting
4D. The Structure of Matter
6-8: 4D/M9. Materials vary in how they respond to electric currents, magnetic forces, and visible light or other electromagnetic waves.
9-12: 4D/H10. The physical properties of compounds reflect the nature of the interactions among its molecules. These interactions are determined by the structure of the molecule, including the constituent atoms and the distances and angles between them.
8. The Designed World
8B. Materials and Manufacturing
9-12: 8B/H4. Increased knowledge of the properties of particular molecular structures helps in the design and synthesis of new materials for special purposes.
9-12: 8B/H6. Groups of atoms and molecules can form structures that can be measured in billionths of a meter. The properties of structures at this scale (known as the nanoscale) and materials composed of such structures, can be very different than the properties at the macroscopic scale because of the increase in the ratio of surface area to volume and changes in the relative strengths of different forces at different scales. Increased knowledge of the properties of materials at the nanoscale provides a basis for the development of new materials and new uses of existing materials.
11. Common Themes
6-8: 11B/M1. Models are often used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small a scale to observe directly. They are also used for processes that are too vast, too complex, or too dangerous to study.
6-8: 11B/M4. Simulations are often useful in modeling events and processes.
%0 Electronic Source %D 2007 %T Virtual Microscope: Training %I Imaging Technology Group %V 2013 %N 25 May 2013 %9 application/flash %U http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/training/
Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.