NEW MICROSCOPE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 52, 29 February 1944, Page 7

NEW MICROSCOPE

USE IN CANCER RESEARCH POWERFUL NEW INSTRUMENT Swedish research workers have recently been provided with an in-) genious instrument which makes it possible to study the infinitesimally small ultra-structures in cancer cells and muscle fibres. It is in use at the Physical Institute in Stockholm, and consists of a giant "electron microscope," constructed by the head of the institute, Professor Manne Seigbahn, who some years ago was awarded the Nobel Prize, for important contributions in the sphere of Rontgenology. Incredibly Thin Cuts In a recent interview the scientist in charge oj' the present investigations. Dr. F. Siostranci, gave some glimpses of the. work that is being done with the giant microscope. "I'n these investigations," he said, "we have to get our preparations as tlvin as possible and, thanks to a new Swedish cutting method, we can now obtain preparations as incredibly thin as only a few hun-dred-thousands of a millimetre in thickness. With the electron microscope, however, it is possible to photograph fibre structures with, a cross-section as small as five or ten m'illionths of a millimetre. "The magnification necessary for this result is obtained by letting an electron ray instead of ordinary light penetrate the preparation on the object-holder, the ray being deflected in ingeniously constructed electromagnetic lenses in the same way as. light in an ordinary .microscope. The effective, magnification becomes nearly a hundred times as great as could be obtained with a light microscope." Study of Cell Structure With the electron microscope the. Swedish scientist says it is possible to study the very finest cellular structures which, next to the .structure of the molecules themselves, are 'in all probability of decisive importance for the life processes in the cell. The discoveries by chemists of various substances in the cells and the transformation of these substances during the life of the cells, must be co-ordinated with a study of the line structure of the cells. Certain chemical transformations are thus confined to certain structures, which is no fortuitous circumstance, but probably means that the structure is in-many cases an essential condition for the transformation. lit is 'in order to get an insight into this fine structure that efforts are now being made to gain a lmowletlgc of hitherto mysterious life processes. As far as the cancer cell in particular is concerned it 'is not inconceivable that with this new aid to research, scientists will be able to light some disturbance in the structure, which might prove to be the origin of the process of the disease.