The year 2009 marks the centenary of the birth of Otto Scherzer, one of the early pioneers of electron microscopy. Scherzer, shown in Figure 1, was the originator of the famous microscopy theorem that the spherical and chromatic aberrations of rotationally symmetric electron lenses were unavoidable [1]. In honor of this centennial occasion, we organized a special memorial symposium during the Microscopy & Microanalysis 2009 meeting, which was held in Richmond, Virginia, in late July. The introductory talks of the symposium presented a fascinating mix of firsthand accounts about working with Scherzer in Darmstadt and descriptions of the correction concepts and the early corrector prototypes that emerged from his group. Placed in this historical context, the latest advances in aberration correction for scanning and fixed-beam instruments that were presented in this symposium were all the more impressive and conveyed a vivid sense of history in the making. Representative applications of aberration correction to a broad range of materials were also highlighted in platform and poster presentations. Here we give a short account of the emergence of aberration-corrected electron microscopy (ACEM) and very briefly summarize some of the prospects and challenges for this burgeoning field. Further information about these developments, including details of applications, will be found in selected papers from the symposium, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Microscopy and Microanalysis due to appear in mid-2010.

There is a solid consensus that new methods of structure fabrication, placement, and organization within the sub-10-nm resolution gap are urgently required to meet existing challenges in condensed matter, semiconductors, and biotechnologies. Standard top-down methods such as resist-based lithographies even used at the shortest available wavelengths have clearly identified limitations. On the other hand, bottom-up approaches, like scanning probe manipulation techniques, remain challenging when trying to generate reproducible, functional, and addressable nano-structures. Therefore, at the laboratory level new routes must be explored.

HyperionTM is a newly developed high-performance ion source that significantly advances the capabilities of many ion beam techniques used by material scientists and engineers. Hyperion has been developed to provide focused beams as small as 10 nm, beam currents up to several micro-Amps, and a broad range of ion species that include He+, O2+, Xe+ and H3+.

Efforts to understand the basic mechanisms of angiogenesis, that is, the formation of new blood vessels from existing vasculature, have been limited by the methods that are currently used to measure vessel growth. Although in vivo assays provide the best environment in which to track angiogenesis, inherent difficulties in obtaining reproducible data limit the power of this approach. Limitations include: environmental variations between experimental animals, induction of inflammatory responses by surgical methods, and labor-intensive blood vessel quantification procedures. A better assay would measure vessel growth in one animal at multiple time points and would focus on minimization of artifacts induced by experimental manipulation.

Microwave-assisted processing of biological specimens, from its inception, has been a methodology that promised time savings over conventional processing methods [1]. It has taken almost 30 years to define and control the significant variables associated with microwave processing [2]. Recent research combined with improved technology have helped in the identification and control of the experimental variables associated with microwave-assisted processing [2–7]. Stated simply they are: (1) constant sample temperature control in conjunction with continuous microwave irradiation [3–4], (2) control of wattage in the microwave device (the ability to control microwave power in the same manner as a dimmer switch controls a light) [2–5], and (3) energy uniformity in the microwave cavity [3–4].

Embrittlement of ancient metals is often complex. The details of embrittlement should be investigated in order to select the best remedial measures for restoration and conservation. This article surveys the techniques used for investigating several ancient embrittled silver artifacts and an iron pile-shoe from a Roman bridge. The possibilities for preserving such objects are also discussed.

The combined focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), known as the DualBeam, is well-known for its unique ability to produce site-specific thin samples starting from bulk and then attaching the section to a transmission electron microscope (TEM) grid, all in-situ. It has been reported that producing a thin sample using a 30 kV gallium FIB creates surface damage several tens of nanometers deep. However, recent DualBeam technology improvements now enable the FIB to produce thin samples with a thickness well below 50 nanometers and deliver a tightly focused ion beam at an energy of 2 kV and below, which dramatically reduces the damage depth to as low as 1 to 2 nanometers in typical materials, such as silicon.