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Wadsworth Scientist Sees the Light about LEDs and Microscopy

cover of the June 2008 issue of the Microscopy and Microanalysis

The cover of the June 2008 issue of the Microscopy Society of America’s journal, Microscopy and Microanalysis, features the work of Wadsworth Center scientist Richard Cole. The featured paper describes the use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to replace conventional illumination sources in bio-imaging.

Light microscopes have had a seminal influence on science for more than 300 years. The past three decades have seen a dramatic resurgence in the use of the light microscope, as well as substantial technical advances. The optical components have greatly improved, including, for example, aberration-corrected objectives, more efficient filters and improved detection via CCD cameras.

However, the illumination system has not significantly evolved. In fact, the tungsten bulb, used for transmitted illumination, has been essentially the same since the time of Edison, and the mercury and xenon arc lamps, the primary sources for fluorescence microscopy, have remained unchanged since their introduction.

The paper demonstrated that LEDs can be easily and inexpensively integrated into modern light microscopes. There are numerous advantages of LEDs as illumination sources; most notably, they provide brightness and spectral control. We demonstrated that for transmitted light imaging, an LED can replace the traditional tungsten filament bulb while offering longer life. The LED has no color temperature change with intensity change and has reduced emission in the infrared region, which is important for live cell imaging.

Light-Emitting Diodes Are Better Illumination Sources for Biological Microscopy than Conventional Sources. Richard W. Cole and James N. Turner. Microscopy and Microanalysis, Volume 14, Issue 03, June 2008, pp 243-250.