Every time I meet scientists, I like to ask what got them interested in their field. So far, of all the myriad reasons I have heard, not one has said “I always enjoyed doing problems and answering multiple choice questions.”

Giovanni Amici was an Italian microscopist, astronomer, optical instrument designer, and botanist who is best known as the achromatic lens inventor. He also designed reflecting telescopes and introduced a lens for the inspection of an objective's rear focal plane, termed the Amici-Bertrand lens. Aditionally, in 1850 he invented the water immersion lens.

Étienne-Jules Marey was born in Beaune, France, on March 5, 1830, to a wine merchant and a teacher. To satisfy his father's wishes, he decided to study medicine, attending the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Marey's fascination with both animals and mechanics inspired him to concentrate on physiology, and it was during his investigations of this field that he became involved in optics.

Ignazio Porro's primary contribution to optics was an innovative prism image erecting system that is commonly used in binoculars and stereomicroscopes, though he also invented and improved a number of other scientific instruments. Today Porro is often considered to have been ahead of his time in many ways. The Italian engineer received little acclaim or monetary compensation for his innovative devices, which only came to be fully appreciated and widely utilized after his death. In fact, when Ernst Abbe attempted to patent binoculars containing his own prism erecting system in 1893, the physicist was very surprised to find that someone else had invented and patented the design decades earlier. Despite his own intense work in the field of optics, Abbe had never heard of the inventor, a telling indication of Porro's difficulties.

If you wish to look inside an arbitrary piece of material and you own a light microscope (LM) or scanning electron microscope (SEM), there are probably three ways that you may accomplish your aim: (a) embed the material in epoxy, then grind and polish it flat; (b) embed the material and use a microtome to obtain cross sections; or (c) CRACK IT. In this short article, it is the last option that will be discussed. The last method is the simplest and quickest of the textbook sample preparation methods for SEM .

Born near Paris, France on November 18, 1787, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was to become both a painter and the inventor of the first successful form of photography. Originally trained as an architect, Daguerre later became a pupil of E. M. Degotti at the Paris Opera and a thriving scene painter. In 1822, working with Charles Boulton, Daguerre helped develop the Diorama, a Paris illusionistic exhibition that contained paintings on large translucent screens, which seemed to come to life with skillful light manipulation.

From humble beginnings, George Eastman revolutionized the field of photography by simplifying the process and making it accessible to the masses. The youngest of three children, Eastman was born in Waterville, New York on July 12, 1854. His family moved to Rochester when he was still a young child so his father, George Washington Eastman, could establish a business school. However, his father died in 1862 and the institution failed.

MICROSCIENCE 2010 was held at the ExCeL International Exhibition and Conference Centre, London, from June 29 to July 1. The conference attracted 519 delegates—the first time that the 500-barrier has been broken. Overall, 2139 visitors from 30 countries from across 5 continents passed through the doors during the three days.

Over the past decade numerous institutions have developed programs geared toward providing scanning electron microscopy capabilities for use by teachers and educators in K–12 classrooms. Perhaps the longest continually running outreach effort began at Iowa State University in the mid-1990s. Termed Project ExCEL, the Extended Classroom for Enhanced Learning, this effort employs a web-operable SEM, termed the WebSEM, which was developed in cooperation with RJ Lee Group. Lessons have been conducted in a number of states around the U.S., as well as several international locations. Several other sites also exist; perhaps the most successful at maintaining a steady user base and marketing itself is Bugscope at the University of Illinois. A summary and listing of other sites most easily found by a simple web search is included in reference.

p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) has been used to retard photobleaching in fluorescence microscopy, to increase the intensity of osmium staining , and to improve lipid preservation . Phend et al. used PPD to improve post-embedding immunolocalization in epoxy-embedded specimens; more recently, Brorson et al. recommended including 1% (wt/vol) PPD in all dehydration steps for post-embedding immunolocalization. Experience with a number of animal tissues and microorganisms has resulted in the following protocol, which has been used to improve post-embedding immunolocalization in specimens embedded in either epoxy resins or acrylic resins such as LR White and LR Gold.

On August 1–5, 2010, the Microscopy & Microanalysis meeting was held in Portland, Oregon. This annual meeting is sponsored by the Microscopy Society of America and the Microbeam Analysis Society. The meeting was enhanced by participation of the International Metallographic Society and the Microscopical Society of Canada, both of which held their annual meetings in conjunction with M&M. The conference attracted a total of 2,768 attendees from 34 countries, making the meeting the third largest in attendance after Philadelphia in 2000 and Chicago in 2006. The equipment exhibition, always a key element of any M&M meeting, was a great success with 1,007 exhibitor attendees from 108 companies occupying 333 booths, totaling 33,300 square feet (3,094 sq metres).

Dominique-François-Jean Arago, better known simply as François Arago, was born on February 26, 1786, in Eastagel, France. A member of a political family, Arago was provided with a classical education, studying first at Perpignan and then at the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1809, at the age of 23, Arago became a professor of analytical geometry at the prestigious Paris school and was subsequently made director of the Paris Observatory. Interested in a variety of scientific fields, Arago's greatest contributions were in optics, astronomy, and electromagnetism. A staunch republican, Arago was also active in politics and was a distinguished statesman later in life.

McDowell and Trump published a seminal paper examining the efficacy of several fixative formulas. They were attempting to determine the best solution for producing samples that could be put in fixative during surgical procedures or in the morgue and then processed for both electron and light microscopy evaluation without significantly compromising either examination method.

Selected postings from the Microscopy Listserver from January 31, 2010 to May 1, 2010. Complete listings and subscription information can be obtained at http://www.microscopy.com. Postings may have been edited to conserve space or for clarity.