Microscope opening up new worlds

Friday, Nov. 11, 2005 | 10:05 a.m.

Gazing through the dual lens of UNLV's electron microscope, research scientist Thomas Hartmann can see into the heart of matter.

The new transmission electron microscope housed at UNLV's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies can help scientists determine the structure and chemical features of materials down to the atomic level.

The microscope, called the TEM, cost $1.3 million and is one of 70 that exist today.

It is letting scientists investigate what happens to metals and other materials when they are bathed in radiation, important research for nuclear waste storage and whether a nuclear waste repository is built at Yucca Mountain.

Allen Johnson, a UNLV chemistry professor, is leading a project to study how stainless steel corrodes. That's important because nuclear waste could be transported and stored in stainless steel containers.

The microscope also allows researchers to perform stress tests on metal or other materials, which is important for construction and engineering.

Researchers studying water treatment are able to actually see if certain microbes will physically work on pollutants, bacteria and viruses.

The university is also letting private industry use the microscope, charging $140 an hour, Hartmann said.

Unlike an ordinary microscope using a light beam shining beneath the specimen on a glass slide, the TEM brings its subject into focus from a shower of electrons cascading from above the sample.

The microscope looks at material that can be 20 times thinner than a human hair, magnifying the sample 1 million times.

Mary Manning can be reached at 259-4065 or at manning@lasvegassun.com.