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In focus:
Seeking
more contributors:
We rely on quite
a small pool of contributors to present an issue
each month. Regular readers who enjoy the magazine
and who haven't contributed to date may wish
to consider doing so. Why not share an aspect of
your own interests—whether macro, micro or,
as Ian Walker shows this month, we are quite
happy to share local interest articles eg the
places where you walk and enjoy nature. What
is local to each of us can be taken for granted but
might be of great interest to those in other
parts of the world.
Most folk have some
sort of digital camera nowadays, even the cameras on
mobile phones are getting competent. So the
Ed awaits a bulging in-box in the following
months. Please see box left for submission guidelines,
but please contact the Ed if any queries. Many
thanks.
Image
permissions, Microscopy-UK hosted images:
We regularly receive third party image permissions which
we are pleased to forward to the image
owner (if they are not contacted directly) as
they retain copyright.
The decision to ask
a fee we leave up to the contributor depending
on the requester and use, but we were surprised
that some major publishing houses have asked
for permissions and included a form for signing
for image use in multi-thousand print /
digital media copies without mentioning any fee.
We suggest
that contributors
don't agree to free image use from publishers
on this basis. Publication quality specialist
photography requires time, skill and potentially expensive
equipment and should be acknowledged by publishers
in profit making image use.
Micscape
Editor after recommendations from Maurice
Smith and Wim van Egmond, both freelance photographers.
NASA
News:
Phoenix
Mars lander arrived safely a few weeks ago.
The instrument package includes a low
power optical microscope and a 'matchbox' sized atomic force
microscope. Designing and implementing miniature microscopes to sample, resample
and work
remotely so far away must be quite a challenge.
A
couple of links which describe these two microscopes are below.
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research -
'MECA-OM The Optical Microscope'
Swissinfo.ch
'Search for life on Mars set to begin'
Virtual
microscope - the NASA funded 'COGS' project 'Connecting a Generation to Science' includes a free downloadable 'virtual microscope'
and sample subjects, including interesting critters like tardigrades
(water bears).
Also
'microscope training' to show how to use real instruments. It forms part of
the wider 'NASA Inspired' project which includes
telescope resources. With thanks to
Dr. Laura Blasi, Saint Leo University, Florida for
drawing these resources to our notice.
http://www.nasa-inspired.org/cogs/cogs.htm
'Microscience
2008 International
Conference and
Exhibition' June
2008,
details at
www.microscience2008.org.uk.
This event,
sponsored by the
Royal Microscopical
Society, takes place
at
London's ExCel,
23-26th June this
year. The
event includes
the 'RMS Learning
Zone' which is free to
exhibition visitors,
where they can learn
about aspects of
optical, electron and
digital microscopy.
With thanks to
Alison Wilson the RMS
Exhibitions Manager
for the
information.
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