Send in your samples to be photographed by a scanning electron microscope

Jeffrey of ASPEX, a producer of scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) and microanalysis software says:

Our company recently kicked off a "Send Us Your Sample" campaign, which allows anyone to mail us an object of their choosing and have it scanned for free under one of our powerful desktop SEMs.

People can send us a piece of clothing, an old toothbrush, or even a dead insect...anything they want to see a picture of under a powerful microscope. It's pretty cool. Once we receive the samples, we'll notify senders of their results via email. You can view other reports we've done here.

Above: a paper tear.

SEM Image Gallery by ASPEX - Send Us Your Sample!

• [warmlogic]

  I’ve seen their “send us your samples” page critiqued on some other blog at least a year ago.

  The “more mold” page < http://aspexcorp.com/updates/more-mold-under-an-sem-scanning-electron-microscope-by-aspex/> features a sandwich in a fake mold ziplock bag < http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=8277>.

  The SEM image from the “moldy mold” page < http://aspexcorp.com/updates/moldy-mold-under-a-scanning-electron-microscope-sem/> is just a zoomed in version of the “more mold” SEM image.

  Even the paper tears page < http://aspexcorp.com/updates/paper-tears-under-an-sem-scanning-electron-microscope/> features the same SEM image under two different samples.

  A fun idea, but is it being executed at all?

• [ian_b]

  I’d like to know if stems cells do, in fact, resemble the tears of baby Jesus.

• [rhinny]

  I really really really really want to send them a scab.

• [muteboy]

  “Not fish – snake scale! See Abdul Ben-Hassan. He make this snake!”"

• [nanuq]

  You’d think they’d include a price list for their product line. No prices to be found on their site. Not that I’m in the market for an SEM but I’m a sucker for aggressive marketing.

• [Vale]

  For something really incredible, people, check out Popular Science August 1932 page 46. Article with photos of the work of H.O. Mueller veteran glass-blower at the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

  “With only a pair of tweezers, a rod of carbon, a blowtorch and glass he fashions models of invisible aquatic creatures. A drop of water from a pool contains thousands of living things that can only be seen with a microscope. Enlarged models of them made by Mueller are in exhibit in the museum.. Especially beautiful are the microscopic jewels known as Radiolarians…”

  Not sure if this link will work:
  http://books.google.com/books?id=VCgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46&dq=glass+blower+models+of+microscopic&as_pt=MAGAZINES&rview=1&cd=2#v=onepage&q=glass%20blower%20models%20of%20microscopic&f=false

• [owza]

  @nanuq A decnt SEM is >£120K. The ASPEX looks like a Back Scatter only device and is probably more like 50-80K

• [Bucket]

  I think it was manufactured…

  Oh, wait, I used that one already.

• [IMoriarty]

  I’m love to see some Aerogel scanned. Sadly, I don’t have any, despite it being relatively cheap.

• [Nollie]

  “I think it was manufactured locally… finest quality… superior workmanship. There is a maker’s serial number… 9-9-0-6-9-4-7-X-B-7-1.”

• [AnthonyC]

  This isn’t important, but since there’s no visibly light involved, it isn’t really a photograph.

  • [owza]

    @AnthonyC That’s correct, the old school terms is micrograph.

• [ShortBus]

  Meh… I sent them a snowflake a month-or-so ago and was really unimpressed with the micrograph they emailed me a few days later.

• [GeekMan]

  “Send Us Your Sample”

  This will have both fascinating, and traumatizing, consequences.

• [weaponx]

  Semen en route