A22 • www.vicnews.com
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - VICTORIA
NEWS
A room with a view to the subatomic Electron microscope project puts university on the cutting edge Edward Hill News staff
By this fall, the world’s most powerful microscope will fire up in a basement at the University of Victoria, and allow scientists to enter a new frontier of subatomic research. But right now, the bulky, stainless steel components are barely cut from their plastic wrap after arriving from Germany. UVic engineering professor Rodney Herring and Hitachi technology manager David Hoyle will spend the summer piecing together 4.5-metre high, seven-tonne device, known as the scanning transmission electron holography microscope (STEHM). “This is the Ferrari of microscopes,” Herring says, smiling. Indeed, the electron gun, aberration correctors and lens package will give scientists the ability to probe to a scale of about one-fifth the diameter of an atom, or about 20 million times magnification from human sight. Nanotechnology works at the level of billionths of a metre – the nanometre. This microscope drills down into trillionths of a metre, the rarefied picometre scale. It can resolve images at 50 picometres and smaller. A silicon atom by comparison is roomy at 235 picometres across. “This is the first of its kind. It is the next generation of electron microscope,” says Elaine Humphrey, manager of the UVic advanced microscopy facility and a biology professor. “We are going below 50 picometres. In picometre technology, there’s not a lot of it around.”
Edward Hill/News staff
University of Victoria engineering professor Rodney Herring stands next to the electron gun apparatus, a key component to a powerful microscope being assembled at the school over the summer. In the basement lab in the Bob Wright building, Herring and Hoyle joke about using duct tape to hold the microscope components together, but this is a decadelong project of mind-boggling engineering and scientific precision. Herring shopped his design to a number of high-tech companies, but most didn’t believe the level of magnification and resolution was possible. Hitachi itself needed convincing that the engineering would work and the investment was sound. The final bill isn’t public knowledge – Herring said $9.2 million from government research grants and UVic is “less than half the cost.” “(The microscope) is an expensive machine,” he said. “It’s arguably the highest level of technology made ... other than (the Large Hadron Collider) or the Interna-
tional Space Station.” Everything on the STEHM hits the extremes – it has the most advanced electron gun, and highest resolution imaging and largest magnification of anything on Earth. The vacuum chamber in the electron gun apparatus nearly replicates the kind of extreme emptiness of deep space. The underground metal chamber that houses the microscope effectively eliminates all sound and external vibrations. It sits on a concrete foundation physically separate from the Bob Wright building, which is built on an existing slab of bedrock too big to vibrate from passing vehicles. Herring said slight vibrations from the human voice or imperceptible pressure changes from a passing cloud would dis-
rupt the machine, if it operated in the open – so it will operate in a chamber overpressured and lined with sound absorbing material. The metal chassis that houses the microscope’s ultra-precise electronics is a metal-composite that is extremely rigid but dampens vibrations – its internal filling is a secret known only to Hitachi engineers. Hoyle said he’s not allowed to talk about it. The UVic advanced microscopy facility hopes to have the STEHM up and running by October. Scientists and engineers from across the planet are already booking research time on the world’s most powerful microscope. Uses for the STEHM are somewhat esoteric, but the device is expected to aid breakthroughs in scores of fields, from computing and nanotechnology, to medical diagnostics and solid-state physics. It will allow physicists and chemists to peer into the atom with untold precision, allowing fundamental research that confirms physical theories of matter. “The unique feature of this microscope is that it can see atoms and tell the type of atom we’re looking at,” Herring said. “We can look at how electrons bond atoms together. We can see the fundamental chemistry of chemical bonding.” At a slightly larger scale, Humphrey said the machine will allow biomedical researchers to create, for instance, highresolution 3-D images of neuron connections in tissues. Computer engineers can map schematics of increasingly small integrated circuits. Herring expects STEHM will remain on the cutting-edge for years to come and will put the university on the world map in terms of providing a facility for fundamental subatomic research. At UVic, the world of the very small has become very big. editor@saanichnews.com
HEROES TICKETS SUPPORT VGH and BC PROFESSIONAL FIRE FIGHTERS' BURN FUND
DEADLINE FRIDAY!
Don’t Miss Your Chance to Win $20,000 Bonus Cash
CUT OFF Midnight June 8
3 Grand Prize Cash Options to Win 3 Tickets for as little as $60. 50/50 Jackpot already over
WOW! $1Million! OVER
.6N $I3 LLIO M
ES! IN PRIZ
HEROES TICKETS: 2 for only $50. 50/50 TICKETS: only $10 each. 50/50 Plus tickets must be ordered in conjunction with your Heroes Lottery ticket order. Winner takes half.
Winner will choose 1 prize option; other prize options will not be awarded. Rules of Play: HeroesLottery.com Home Hours, Locations and Tickets:
HeroesLottery.com
1-866-597-4376
3 GRAND PRIZE WINNERS / TICKETS AT THE PRIZE HOMES AND
Chances are 1 in 480,600 (total tickets for sale) to win the 50/50 grand prize Chances are 1 in 390,000 (total tickets for sale) to win a grand prize. Problem Gambling Help Line 1-888-795-6111 www.bcresponsiblegambling.ca
Know your limit, play within it.
TM
50/50 BC Gaming Event Licence #42892 BC Gaming Event Licence #42893
19+ to play!