text: May 2007 | BioPhotonics
  Medical Lighting The state-of-the-art surgical suite is a streamlined center where efficient work flow is key. Fluoroscopes, ultrasound units, electrocauteries, cutting devices, video cameras, robots and more are positioned where needed and pushed out of the way when not in use. The big, boxy computer monitor of yesterday has been replaced by flat panel displays on arms that bring images of the surgical field...
  Microtomy with Femtosecond Lasers A microtome is an instrument used to prepare thin sections of human, animal or plant tissue for microscopic examination. Usually, sectioning biological specimens is performed by microtomes that work...
  Better Fluorescent Probes Facilitate Cellular Imaging Fluorescent probes are small but powerful, shedding light on the inner working of cells and the diseases that afflict them. However, sometimes the right probe for a particular job does not exist....
  Examining plaques in coronary arteries Macrophages guard the body against pathogens, yet they also can accelerate cardiovascular problems by weakening the fibrous cap surrounding artery-blocking plaques and promoting dangerous blood clot...
  Medical imaging 50 times faster Medical image processing can be time-consuming, and accelerating the imaging will enable doctors to make more rapid diagnoses. To greatly increase the speed of processing, Dr. Bradley Erickson, a...
  Imaging technique may improve diagnosis of brain clots Neuroradiologists at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio have found that specialized contrast-enhanced techniques combined with standard MRI scans could result in improved...
  Does lasik work as well in older patients? Lasik is being used more often in older adults than it had been previously, but some studies have shown that, as patients age, the laser nomograms need to be adjusted. Thus, researchers from Harvard...
  Nanophotonics trends IntertechPira has released a technology study titled "Advances in Nanophotonics," which provides an overview of the field, including challenges and emerging trends across a wide range of industries....
  Plate reader Wyatt Technology Corp. has released a six-page brochure titled "DynaPro Plate Reader: High-Throughput, Automated Temperature-Controlled Dynamic Light Scattering." The document notes that, with the...
  Systems bioinformatics Part of the "Bioinformatics & Biomedical Imaging" series, the book Systems Bioinformatics: An Engineering Case-Based Approach introduces a quantitative systems approach to bioinformatics research...
  Web site CoolLed has launched a revised Web site to focus on the application of its precisExcite LED light source for fluorescence microscopy. The resource explains the benefits of LED excitation of...
  Optical properties The 295-page volume Optics of Biological Particles represents the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Fluorescence and other Optical Properties of Biological Particles for...
  Reagents, kits The February 2007 issue of Topix, a technical newsletter from Alexis Biochemicals, introduces more than 100 reagents and kits for life sciences research. Available as a download or in print, the...
  Web site The enhanced Web site of Owis GmbH features a new layout and a menu structure that are designed to help visitors quickly locate relevant information. A "support and download" area provides access to...
  Filter sets A full-color brochure from Chroma Technology Corp. showcases the ET series modified magnetron sputter-coated filter sets, which are designed to meet the specific requirements of fluorescence...
  Field spectroscopy A specialist in portable spectroradiometers, Analytical Spectral Devices Inc. has launched a resource Web log for the remote sensing community and for field spectroscopy users of all levels and...
  Bioluminescence An addition to the "Tutorial Text" series, the 88-page Bioluminescence for Food and Environmental Microbiological Safety is targeted to engineers, scientists, students and managers who are involved...
  Cuttlefish: Flashy by day, cryptic by night During the day, cuttlefish on spawning grounds move about the ocean floor in plain view. Males wave their arms in aggressive bouts (left), and both genders engage in conspicuous sexual signaling. In another sunlit setting, a cuttlefish guards its mate (middle). As reported in the April 2007 issue of The American Naturalist, however, Roger T. Hanlon and colleagues at the Marine Biological...
  Broadband mirrors Edmund Optics Inc. presents deep-UV enhanced mirrors that are suitable for steering light sources at wavelengths through the UV, VIS and IR ranges. Offering >85% reflectance from 170 nm to 11...
  VPH gratings The patent-pending HD 1800 line pairs per millimeter volume phase holographic transmission gratings are suitable for optical coherence tomography and other applications around 840 nm. Available from...
  Plate reader Wyatt Technology Corp. has added the DynaPro plate reader to its line of dynamic light scattering (DLS) products. The high-throughput, temperature-controlled DLS instrument is designed to improve...
  Clear microplates Clear-bottomed microplates designed for performance in the long-wavelength UV region have been unveiled by Porvair Sciences Ltd. The Krystal-UV plates are available in 24-, 96- and 384-well formats....
  Imaging algorithm Bruker Daltonics has added its ClassImaging algorithm to its Maldi Molecular Imager systems. It is suitable for biomarker detection, tissue classification, pathology research, and imaging the...
  Crystal rods Nd:YAG crystal rods are available from Ekspla and are suitable for OEM and R&D applications. Made from the most popular material for solid-state lasers, the crystal rods are best for...
  Optical multiplexer Ocean Optics Inc.'s Mikropack office has introduced the MPM-2000 fiber optic multiplexer for multipoint sampling. It is suitable for settings where multiple locations must be measured with...
  Robust optical fibers Optical fibers with hard clad silica fiber coating from OFS Specialty Photonics Div. now are available, and they can withstand severe bends during power. The coating provides a robust and reliable...
  Apodizing filter The apodizing neutral density filters (p/n R01450-00) from Reynard Corp. are part of the Bullseye apodizer line of gradient filters, which eliminate undesirable intensity variations in optical...
  Focus drive Tofra Inc. has unveiled the focus drive with integrated controller for optical microscopes. It provides computer-controlled movement of fine focus and retains manual movement of coarse focus. It...
  UV-VIS-NIR microscope Craic Technologies Inc. has introduced the UVM-2, a UV-VIS-NIR microscope and microimaging system with a spectral range of 250 to 2000 nm. The instrument performs transmittance and reflectance...
  Multielement sensors Vertilon Corp. has announced the 32-channel PhotoniQ IQSP480 and the 64-channel IQSP482 data acquisition systems for applications using multi-anode photomultiplier tubes and avalanche photodiode...
  Microplate software BioTek Instruments Inc.'s Gen5 microplate data analysis software, version 1.02, provides data reduction tools, including a five-parameter logistic fit, several weighting options and curve constraint...
  Real-time x-ray camera The Shad-o-Box HS x-ray camera from Rad-icon Imaging Corp. is a stand-alone, high-resolution radiation imaging device with a 12-bit digital interface. The large 49.2 × 49.2-mm sensing area consists...
  Raman spectrometer B&W Tek Inc. has unveiled the MiniRam II, a portable Raman spectrometer. It weighs only ~6.4 lb, it is battery operated, and it has a 10 cm–1 FWHM spectral resolution through the Raman shift...
  Digital camera The DP25 five-megapixel digital color camera from Olympus Life and Material Science Europa GmbH is suitable for a variety of microscopy image acquisition, documentation, reporting and analysis...
  OE Solutions America Inc.
  CCD Camera The Pixis-XO: 2048B camera from Princeton Instruments/Acton is suitable for x-ray microscopy, x-ray imaging, x-ray spectroscopy, extreme-UV lithography and x-ray plasma diagnostics. The CCD camera...
  Fiber laser NP Photonics Corp. has introduced the Rock, a single-frequency fiber laser that resists vibration without the need for active stabilization. It employs a proprietary stabilization technique that...
  Imaging spectrometer The Raman Discovery compact lightweight multichannel imaging spectrometers for OEMs and system integrators are designed for applications in harsh imaging environments. Available from Headwall...
  Spectrophotometer The ND-8000 spectrophotometer from NanoDrop Technologies Inc. can measure eight samples as small as 1 μl simultaneously. Based on the ND-1000, the device can process a measurement cycle in less...
  Intensified CCD camera Hamamatsu Corp.'s C10054 series intensified CCD cameras are equipped with one- or two-stage microchannel plate image intensifiers to increase the light available for detection. Designed for acquiring...
  Stepper motor controls The ProScan II and PriorPCI2 stepper motor controllers from Prior Scientific Inc. now include several high-speed control features. All of the four available TTL inputs on the controllers can be...
  Optical amplifier Coherent Inc. has introduced the OPerA Solo, an optical parametric amplifier that provides tunable ultrafast pulses from the UV through the mid-IR. The amplifier has an integrated construction, with...
  Diode laser bar An 880-nm, fiber-coupled, conduction-cooled diode laser bar is available from Dilas Diode Laser Inc. It delivers up to 30 W of CW power out of a 400-μm output fiber with a numerical aperture of...