William R. Bowen Microscopy Center

Research Opportunities

LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD!

Electron microscopes can be used for a wide variety of observations.  Students need to be encouraged to perform undergraduate research.  Why?  Well, put yourself in the shoes of a person reviewing your job application or an application to attend graduate school.  Everyone who has applied has reasonably good grades, good letters of recommendation, some work experience and a lot of desire.  What separates you from the crowd?  Here at JSU and at Universities across the country we have come to the conclusion that research experience and publications or presentations help your development as much as your academic courses. 

What do you need to know? 

Know that professors and employers are looking for people that can work independently and perform tasks without direct supervision.  Once you have been trained on the use of the SEM microscope and have discussed your research project with a supervisor or professor you should "take the bull by the horns" and get the job done.  Professors especially at a small school don't have time to do your work for you.  You should take the initiative and complete your project then write it up in a format that is publishable. Professors at JSU will be more than happy to help and advise you but if you want this to get done and be able to include it on your resume then you will have to get busy. 

What kind of research can you do? 

The opportunities are infinite.  You will find a few ideas below but you should probably investigate other areas that interest you.  A good research project is one that you find exciting and interesting. One way to find interesting ideas and uses is to visit journals in the field of electron microscopy such asSCANNING (http://www.scanning-fams.org/)  you may not have access to the full text articles but you can read the titles and abstract summaries to get an idea of what the research entails. 

There are a few things that you should consider: Can it be done with our equipment? What is my objective?  Does this provide the opportunity to answer a biological question?  Has anything similar been done before? 

If we can perform the experiment using our equipment, you have a clear objective and it will answer a biological question then you have a good start to developing your own research idea.  Then you should do a very thorough literature review and see if anything similar has been done before.  There is no reason to reinvent the wheel so if there are protocols available for preparing a sample of diatoms then you can use that protocol for your research! 

A FEW IDEAS

a)     Environmental assessments for heavy metal contamination.  Using macroinvertebrates as biomonitors (chironomid and other aquatic insect larvae) will now be detected in situ;

b)     Morphological changes in both embryos exposed to various pollutants and microbial biofilms (Evans, et al., 1998) associated with plant rhizospheres and cystic fibrosis (the latter in conjunction with Univ Alabama-Birmingham’s Cystic Fibrosis Research Center) can be visually ascertained.

c)     Screening and isolation of cellulolytic bacteria.  Degradation of the plant polysaccharide, cellulose, is a major concern with both environmental and biotechnological applications. Cellulose-degrading bacteria from ruminants are now known to produce cellulosomes, large extracellular protuberances that are detectable with SEM (Blair and Anderson, 1998). The presence and role of these anaerobes in freshwater environments is poorly understood and is the focus of this on-going project.  They may serve as potential biomonitors for detecting non-point pollution sources since most farm-generated animal wastes, in contrast to human, contain cellulosome-producing bacteria.  Students will also study the direct effect of pollutants on cellulosome production in these bacteria.

d)     Tardigrade SEM-EDS Studies Tardigrades or “water bears” are unique microscopic invertebrates found in freshwater/terrestrial environments.  Morphological and anatomical features distinguish most species and the 2 major groups’, heterotardigrades and the eutardigrades (see: http://www.nyms.org/Newsletter.htm "WATER BEAR HUNT A BIG HIT").  Such identification requires both light microscopy and SEM; especially minute details of a sculptured cuticle, retractable claws, etc. The proposed SEM is critical to continued student research of tardigrades, and re-description of Echiniscus mauccii among other species, and re-evaluation of Echiniscidae systematics.   The SEM-EDS also will support: a) elemental microanalysis of structural components from different species from different habitats, exploring the potential of tardigrades as biomonitors; and b) training workshops.

e)     Effects of pollution on the presence of epibiotic diatoms.  Any change to an environment has the potential to effect the organisms inhabiting that habitat.  In the case of epibiotic (surface binding) diatoms it is a simple matter to combine light and electron microscopy to survey the changes that may occur under various stressful conditions. 

f)       SEM-EDS Analysis of Microcrystals and Alloys.  A growing materials research unit in JSU chemistry involves the synthesis of novel materials with definite magnetic, optical and catalytic properties.  These compounds, derived from Zintl phases as precursors, include: a) silicon and germanium nano- and microcrystals coated with transition metals (cobalt, nickel, copper) (Gryko et al 2000); and b) an amorphous and micocrystalline magnetic intermetallic alloys containing tellurium.

g)     In archeology, ceramic analysis of Indian artifacts previously focused on vessel form and surface decoration whereas elemental composition of pottery artifacts, and their geological source, can now be ascertained without specimen alteration.

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