This is the seventh issue of Microscopy Today in its new format. The re-styled magazine has received favorable comments from both readers and advertisers. Article submission has increased, and many authors have used Microscopy Today to highlight and summarize their work published in other venues. In this issue we begin two new occasional departments. One is called “Microscopy Protocols.” I invite readers to contribute protocols and procedures useful for microscopists and microanalysts. The other new department is called “Your Point of View” where we will publish the results of periodic surveys concerning the microscopy and microanalysis communities.

Some of the receptors on the surface of cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) mediate the response of these cells to catecholamines by causing the production of the common second messenger cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). An example of such receptors are the β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors (βARs) that are heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptors. Selective stimulation of these two receptor subtypes leads to distinct physiological and pathophysiological responses, but their precise location on the surface of cardiomyocytes has not been correlated with these responses. In an ingenious combination of techniques, Viacheslav Nikolaev, Alexey Moshkov, Alexander Lyon, Michele Miragoli, Pavel Novak, Helen Paur, Martin Lohse, Yuri Korchev, Sian Harding, and Julia Gorelik have mapped the function of these receptors for the first time.

Theoretically, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is compatible with three different types of phase plate: thin-film, electrostatic, and magnetic. However, designing functional phase plates has been an arduous process that has suffered from unavoidable technical obstacles such as phase-plate charging and difficulties associated with micro-fabrication of electrostatic and magnetic phase plates. This review discusses phase-contrast schemes that allow visualization of transparent objects with high contrast. Next it deals with recent studies on biological applications ranging from proteins and viruses to whole cells. Finally, future prospects for overcoming the problem of phase-plate charging and for designing the next generation of phase-plates to solve the problem of electron loss inherent in thin-film phase plates are discussed.

For many years now, the combination of the modern S/TEM system (scanning/transmission electron microscope) with the X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (XEDS) has resulted in Analytical Electron Microscopes (AEMs) able to deliver both high-resolution imaging and elemental composition maps in the same instrument. This ability to correlate local elemental composition with microstructure has greatly broadened the applications realm of the S/TEM instrument. The boundaries of performance for many of these applications are now determined by limits in XEDS system detection sensitivity. In this article, we describe an AEM with greatly enhanced detection sensitivity due to a number of innovations in the system architecture, including: a high-brightness Schottky FEG source, four detectors integrated deeply into the objective lens, windowless silicon drift detector technology with shutters, and high-speed electronics readout. This new system architecture provides many performance benefits, such as improved light element detection, better sample tilt response, faster mapping, and especially enhanced system detection sensitivity.

One of the capabilities of electron microscopes is to obtain diffraction patterns, which can be analyzed to give information about the structure of the specimen. This brief review discusses some of the technical considerations in using electron diffraction patterns for structural analysis. The technique of selected-area electron diffraction uses diffraction obtained from a limited region of the specimen.

Bacteriophages, as the name “bacteria-eater” suggests, are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages, often abbreviated as “phages,” have receptors that bind to specific bacterial species, thus there are many types of bacteriophages. Once a phage interacts with its target bacterium, the phage injects its genetic material into the bacterial host where the phage is replicated to produce many new phages that then leave the host via cell lysis.

At last year's M&M meeting, the birth centennial of Otto Scherzer, one of the pioneers of electron optics and particularly the correction of electron-optical lenses, was remembered in a special symposium. His scientific achievements have been extensively described in an article by Marko and Rose (2010). Here we try to recollect some personal memories of Otto Scherzer from the time we spent at the “Institut für theoretische Physik” at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (now Technische Universität Darmstadt).

“All microscopes cause contamination of the specimen under the electron beam,” said our instructor at the EELS school I was attending. “Ours doesn't!” I responded. This only caused him to repeat his assertion.

For 20 years, Microscopy/Microscopy Education (MME) has been conducting market surveys for the industry, identifying emerging trends and, even more importantly, giving you, the practicing microscopist and spectroscopist, a chance to impact the direction of instrumentation via your input on our surveys. (Many of you remember us for the M&Ms we used to hand out in exchange for your input at key trade shows). The results of 20 years of your valued participation have been profound: new technology that fits your needs, coming on line faster and more economically.

Selected postings from the Microscopy Listserver from January 31, 2010 to May 1, 2010. Complete listings and subscription information can be obtained at http://www.microscopy.com. Postings may have been edited to conserve space or for clarity.

In the March issue of Microscopy Today, I perpetrated a trick on the reader. I proposed a new way to operate a transmission electron microscope, claiming that it would achieve an order of magnitude improvement in resolution—knowing that the idea would not work. A prize was offered (in a “Note Added in Proof,” separate from the main article) for the best explanation as to why it would not work. Only one entry for the competition was submitted, and that was not—as far as I can tell—a serious attempt to show why the proposal would not work.