Whether it is viewing the size and shape of a shark's scales, the surface details of a dinosaur egg or air bubble distribution in frozen ice-cream, finding your way around a scanning electron microscope is now easier thanks to Australia's first national training site.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø is leading the training project dubbed MyScope, which involves a consortia of six major Australian universities and the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility.
The project is supported by an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
MyScope is built around an interactive website (ammrf.org.au) - a "how-to" for an array of ever-changing and highly complex research laboratory equipment.
In addition to the scanning electron microscope module, future modules planned for the website include transmission electron microscopy; X-ray diffusion; atomic force microscopy; confocal microscopy; and microanalysis.
Project leader, Dr Bronwen Cribb, from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø's Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, said the sheer range of technologies and equipment currently available and in high demand by Australian students and research scientists required an adaptable learning and teaching environment with nationally agreed standards.
"MyScope is designed to address this need and represents a first stage in an approach that will change the educational landscape and foster further success in research outcomes," she said.
"There is demand for education in high-end, science-based technology across Australia and internationally. The disciplines involved are found under names such as nanotechnology, micro and nano-imaging, and cell-labeling.
"We have entered an era where we now regularly engineer biology to develop new materials and complex medical solutions.
"So it is not surprising that with each passing year, there are many more students needing to learn and use the methods and tools involved."
The launch will be held from 10am - 1pm (tours available from 1pm) on Wednesday, November 23, on the ground floor, AIBN building, corner College and Cooper Rds, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø St Lucia campus.
The launch will include demonstrations of how online tools intersect with learning environments by crossing online to laboratories on the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø campus as well as Flinders University. A new piece of equipment that ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø has just had installed - an X-ray Diffractometer to be used for investigating crystalline structure - will also be commissioned during the launch.
Some of the interesting projects viewed (and photographed) via scanning electron microscope in recent months include:
> Distribution of fats, sugars and air bubbles in frozen ice cream and chocolate (to make them more appealing)
> Identification of asbestos fibres in building materials
> Penetration of microneedles into skin (for delivery of vaccines without injections)
> Size and shape of shark skin scales (to see how they reduce drag)
> Surface details of fossilised dinosaur eggs shell (to tell us more about dinosaurs)
> Elemental composition of paints/pigments from historical paintings (telling a fake or a forgery from the real thing)
> Imaging fangs of giant centipedes (to tell us how venom systems evolved)
> Self-cleaning surfaces of cicada wings (so that we can mimic the material)
> Minute lacy structure of butterfly scales that make colour from their pattern alone (colour from structure not pigment)
> Studying the structure of new materials that are resistant to termite attack
> Investigating osteoporotic bone (so that we can develop better diagnostics), and
> Elemental composition of meteorites.
Media: Dr Bronwen Cribb on 07 3365 7086 or b.cribb@uq.edu.au
