Expedition Into The Nanoworld

The story of microscopy over the years is one of wonder, revelation, and even love. What better words could there be to describe the amazing things that we have been able to see, learn and accomplish thanks to the progress made in this field? A love story between a pieace of glass and the rainbow with an original soundtrack mad of poetry and music. From Galilei’s initial foray into basic optical microscopy, including the Camillo Golgi and Giuliano Toraldo di Francia lessons, to such later developments as time-resolved microscopy, multi-photon microscopy and three-dimensional microscopy to innovations such as optical nanoscopy, bioimaging and super resolution imaging, the book seeks to take the reader, be they scientist or layperson, on a journey through the evolution of the microscope and its many uses, including in the field of medicine. The author uses visible light as a through-line to unite the various chapters, as well as using fluorescence as a touchpoint from which to map the changes in the science, a significant choice, as it, along with label-free approaches and the addition of artificial intelligence, form the natural environment for development of the modern multi-messenger microscope towards bioimaging at the nanoscale.

The story of microscopy over the years is one of wonder, revelation, and even love. What better words could there be to describe the amazing things that we have been able to see, learn and accomplish thanks to the progress made in this field? A love story between a pieace of glass and the rainbow with an original soundtrack mad of poetry and music. From Galilei's initial foray into basic optical microscopy, including the Camillo Golgi and Giuliano Toraldo di Francia lessons, to such later developments as time-resolved microscopy, multi-photon microscopy and three-dimensional microscopy to innovations such as optical nanoscopy, bioimaging and super resolution imaging, the book seeks to take the reader, be they scientist or layperson, on a journey through the evolution of the microscope and its many uses, including in the field of medicine. The author uses visible light as a through-line to unite the various chapters, as well as using fluorescence as a touchpoint from which to map the changes in the science, a significant choice, as it, along with label-free approaches and the addition of artificial intelligence, form the natural environment for development of the modern multi-messenger microscope towards bioimaging at the nanoscale.

Optical microscopy is developing into nanoscopy and multimodal microscopy the better to decipher the functioning mechanisms in living systems, and investigating biological specimens at molecular level using fluorescence as a mechanism of contrast. Results have demonstrated the potential to provide information at the Angstrom level. Other optical methods now offer more in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, making it possible to study the delicate and complex relationship between structure and function in cells. Modern optical microscopes also use the decisive advantage provided by artificial intelligence algorithms. All in all, a rapidly changing field with an increasing number of questions to be answered. This book contains the lectures presented as Course 210 of the prestigious International School of Physics Enrico Fermi, Multimodal and Nanoscale Optical Microscopy, held in Varenna, Italy from 11 to 16 July 2021. Topics covered include fluorescence; linear and nonlinear microscopy; label-free with Mueller matrix and Brillouin microscopy; F-methods such as FRAP, FLIM, FRET and FCS; super-resolution, phototoxicity and photodamage; optical and magnetic trapping; image formation; and bioimage analysis, among others. The book also includes selected contributions of a number of young researchers. Packed with novel ideas, new instruments, challenging theoretical approaches and amazing applications, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field of multimodal and nanoscale optical microscopy.

Our lives are about to be changed by new technologies that operate on a scale too small to be seen by even the most powerful optical microscopes. Devices measured in nanometers-billionths of a meter-have set off a nanotechnology revolution. In Travels to the Nanoworld, Michael Gross takes us deep into this miniature universe and describes natural processes and new technologies that will make modern machines look like relics from the Stone Age. Starting with the model of the living cell, whose vital processes are directed and carried out by structures with dimensions on the nanometer scale, Gross shows how biochemists are beginning to understand the mechanisms of the "nanotechnology of nature." Soon science will have the knowledge and technology to generate artificial systems that will perform similar tasks, and through them will find new treatments for disease, substitutes for toxic waste, and alternatives to carbon fuel.

In Mondo Nano Colin Milburn takes his readers on a playful expedition through the emerging landscape of nanotechnology, offering a light-hearted yet critical account of our high-tech world of fun and games. This expedition ventures into discussions of the first nanocars, the popular video games Second Life, Crysis, and BioShock, international nanosoccer tournaments, and utopian nano cities. Along the way, Milburn shows how the methods, dispositions, and goals of nanotechnology research converge with video game culture. With an emphasis on play, scientists and gamers alike are building a new world atom by atom, transforming scientific speculations and video game fantasies into reality. Milburn suggests that the closing of the gap between bits and atoms entices scientists, geeks, and gamers to dream of a completely programmable future. Welcome to the wild world of Mondo Nano.

This captivating book presents 50 great moments from the past five decades of the Electron Microscope Unit¿s activities. Blending history and science in an engaging style, 50 Great Moments tells the story of the unit¿s creation and profiles the key figures that have forged the facility into the success that it is today. The book looks at the instruments, events and achievements that have defined the unit¿s character and contributed so much to Australian microscopy and microanalysis. Finally, this volume explores some of the important research done by the scientists and engineers who have used the unit¿s advanced microscopes.

The dawning era of nanotechnology promises to transform life as we know it. Visionary scientists are engineering materials and devices at the molecular scale that will forever alter the way we think about our technologies, our societies, our bodies, and even reality itself. Colin Milburn argues that the rise of nanotechnology involves a way of seeing that he calls “nanovision.” Trekking across the technoscapes and the dreamscapes of nanotechnology, he elaborates a theory of nanovision, demonstrating that nanotechnology has depended throughout its history on a symbiotic relationship with science fiction. Nanotechnology’s scientific theories, laboratory instruments, and research programs are inextricable from speculative visions, hyperbolic rhetoric, and fictional narratives. Milburn illuminates the practices of nanotechnology by examining an enormous range of cultural artifacts, including scientific research articles, engineering textbooks, laboratory images, popular science writings, novels, comic books, and blockbuster films. In so doing, he reveals connections between the technologies of visualization that have helped inaugurate nano research, such as the scanning tunneling microscope, and the prescient writings of Robert A. Heinlein, James Blish, and Theodore Sturgeon. He delves into fictive and scientific representations of “gray goo,” the nightmare scenario in which autonomous nanobots rise up in rebellion and wreak havoc on the world. He shows that nanoscience and “splatterpunk” novels share a violent aesthetic of disintegration: the biological body is breached and torn asunder only to be refabricated as an assemblage of self-organizing machines. Whether in high-tech laboratories or science fiction stories, nanovision deconstructs the human subject and galvanizes the invention of a posthuman future.