We enjoy finding out how our Microscopy Illumination Systems are being applied, and it’s always impressive to see the diversity in the different applications. We’ve picked just a few highlights from the end of 2021, but there are plenty more papers we have collated into our Technical Resource library.
“Humans Share More Preferences for Floral Phenotypes With Pollinators Than With Pests”
This study looks at the evolution of flowers alongside different organisms – in this case, humans, pollinators and pests. Pollination and pests are important for agriculture, and it’s interesting that humans have more similarities in terms of scent and visual preference, compared to pests. The researchers used the pE-300white to analyse pollen, and this Illumination System is popular for everyday fluorescent screening with simple operation and individual control of each LED channel.
Understanding how the heartbeat is controlled is incredibly important for human health, and especially when looking at the effects in response to stimulation by the sympathetic nervous system. Here the researchers have uncovered the detailed mechanism for the ‘fight or flight’ response in cardiac pacemaker cells. Calcium flux is of course an incredibly important signal, and this study relied on calcium imaging using Fluo-4 and excitation with the CoolLED pE-300white.
Powerful and controllable LED illumination offers many benefits outside of the life science area too. In this example of art conservation, old varnish treatment of a wall painting had to be carefully removed. Prior to any conservation work, it is important to understand the paint structure, and optical microscopy was one method employed to examine the cross-sections of paint samples. The researchers used the pE-4000 Universal Illumination System which offers 16 selectable wavelengths from 365 – 770 nm, making it a highly flexible illuminator for different applications such as visualising paintings at different wavelengths.
Browse our Technical Resource library for more research!