• Question: How did you become a scientist and how does the High povered microscope work?

    Asked by raiden908 to Matt, Matt, Leah, Andrea, Ana, Amar on 10 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by , cherry1.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I became a scientist because I am fascinated by how things work. As a biologist this means understanding how molecules and chemicals control what your cells do and what goes wrong to cause diseases such as cancer.

      The high-powered microscope that I used to use in the lab was called a ‘confocal microscope’. This microscope works in the same way that the ‘light microscopes’ you use at school do but is able to focus on samples in extremely high detail. So light is focused onto the sample you want to look at, the light is reflected back where it then hits a mirror and is reflected onto a detector. This light detector then produces an image on the computer which is a high detailed image of what you are looking at.

    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I became a scientist because I was so curious about how everything worked and why.

      There are several types of high powered microscopes, I’ve used an electron microscope. This beams electrons at your sample, the electrons scatter as they pass through your sample. The electrons are magnified by an objective lens, the amount the electrons scattered tells you information about what you’re looking at.

    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I became a scientist by doing the following:
      I enjoyed science at school so I chose science for my A levels.
      I enjoyed science at A level so I thought about doing it at uni. I like biology and chemistry both so I did Biochemistry at uni.
      During my degree I enjoyed doing experiments so I did a PhD. And now I’ve continued to to biomedical science ever since.

      Microscopes are limited by the type of light they use. With visible light from a light bulb you can see cells and some of the large features within them. This is because the light waves and the cells are about the same size. They magnify things because of the physical processes that happen in the lens. The light is bent in such a way that the things seem nearer and bigger than they are.

      Some people add extra things into their sample, like Matt, which only shows selective things.

      An other type of microscope is the electron microscope. This uses electrons instead of light. The wavelength of electrons is much smaller than the light from light bulbs. This means you can see much more detail, however the electrons can damage the delicate biological samples so they have to be specially treated before. While a light microscope used glass lenses, this won’t work for electrons. But large magnets can be used instead.

      Hope that answers your question.

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      When I was in year 11 I did work experience at the environment agency. I spent two days in the biology labs there and loved the lab! I loved GCSEs science so decided to do chemistry and biology as two of my a levels. I thought I wanted to be an environmental scientist but didn’t really enjoy the ecology and plant stuff at A level and loved the human biology…so chose a degree in biomedical science! When I was doing my degree I did a placement year at the Christie hospital? This is a specialist cancer hospital in Manchester. I trained to be a biomedical scientist and completed my registration portfolio. This ment when I graduated I got my degree and was a fully qualified biomedical scientist! I did my masters degree distance learning whilst working full time.

      What the others have written about high powered microscopes is all correct. Generally for diagnosis histopathologists use powerful light microscopes. Sme specialist centres use electron microscopes to aid diagnosis on special cases. The electron microscope will show cell organelles so detail of the nucleus, etc etc

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      I became a scientist sort of by accident! I studied Music and Drama at A-level, but then didn’t know what I wanted to do with those so I went back to 6th From and did A-levels in Chemistry and Biology too. My degree was in Biochemistry, but after Uni I still wasn’t sure, so went to work in other places like pubs and restaurants. Then I saw an advert for a job working as an assistant in a virology lab so I thought I would apply. Luckily I got the job and after a few months I registered for my doctorate degree.

      The others have covered how microscopes work pretty well, but we can also get more information from looking at cells down a microscope by tagging molecules that we are interested in so that they glow when we look at them with a certain wavelength of light. There are lots of colours of fluorescent tags available so that we can build a picture of where different things are within the same cell.

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