Most trade magazines have an annual schedule of featured topics slated for certain issues. This publishing calendar helps readers, authors, and advertisers know in advance that a certain topic will be emphasized at least once a year. For Microscopy Today, the March, July, and November issues will feature, respectively, microanalysis, light microscopy, and scanning probe microscopy. The other three issues during the year will contain the usual variety of topics concerning all microscopy methods.
This issue marks the second year that scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has been featured in the November issue. This exciting field continues to expand rapidly with many new instrumental methods in the last two years. The selection of articles in our present issue gives a glimpse into this amazing nanoworld, where material properties can be measured on the same specimen area from which high-resolution topographical images are obtained. Even the education article in this issue concerns SPM; it is a laboratory module that asks students to check the equation for the diffraction of light by measuring the spacing of a diffraction grating with atomic force microscopy.
The March microanalysis issue of 2011 will feature several surface analysis techniques. Among this group of tools are the highly sensitive techniques of low-energy ion spectroscopy (LEIS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that provide new information from the top monolayer to a depth of a few nanometers. In addition, scanning probe imaging can be used in conjunction with surface analysis techniques to bring high-resolution imaging to this field.
The July issue will be our light microscopy issue. The past few years have seen an explosion of new techniques for molecular-specific imaging in cell biology. We will follow those developments in these pages. New trends in particle analysis and polished-surface metallography will also be welcome in the light microscopy issue.
In the January, May, and September issues, you will see our traditional mix of articles on SEM, TEM, and many other microscopy techniques. In each issue there will be useful hints and tips scattered through our Microscopy Education, NetNotes, Protocols, and Microscopy 101 departments. And of course, Herr Dr. Prof. Abbe will do his best to help troubled microscopists.
