Abstract
DURING the past several years a number of investigations1–13 have been made to compute the mass thickness of biological samples, from the contrast in their electron microscope images. The basis of all these measurements is the well-established relation: where It/I0 is the image contrast of an elemental object area of mass thickness ρt and S is the scattering cross-section per gm. of the object. By using carbonaceous samples, for example, spheres of polystyrene latex, of known diameter and density and measuring their image contrast, several authors3,12 have estimated the value of S under various operating conditions of the electron microscope. From these results, curve 1 in Fig. 1 has been plotted, showing the variation of S with the angular aperture α, for 50-kV. energy electron beam. A few values of S for (i) carbon film calculated from the experimental data of Lippert14 and (ii) ‘Formvar’ film (from data of Bahr5) have also been plotted in Fig. 1.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Hall, C. E., J. App. Phys., 22, 655 (1951).
Hall, C. E., J. Biophys. Biochem. Cytol., 1, 1 (1955).
Hall, C. E., and Inoue, T., J. App. Phys., 28, 1348 (1957).
Zeitler, E., and Bahr, G. F., Exp. Cell Res., 12, 44 (1957).
Bahr, G. F., Acta Radio., Supp., 128, 147 (1957).
De, M. L., and Sadhukhan, P., Nature, 182, 1008 (1958).
Zeitler, E., and Bahr, G. F., J. App. Phys., 30, 940 (1959).
Amelunxen, F., Z. Naturforsch., 14, b, 28, 759 (1959).
Bloom, G., and Zeitler, E., Exp. Cell Res., 17, 13 (1959).
Sobin, L., Bloom, G., and Zeitler, E., Exp. Cell Res., 17, 472 (1959).
Silvester, N. R., and Burge, R. E., J. Biophys. Biochem. Cytol., 6, 179 (1959).
Burge, R. E., and Silvester, N. R., J. Biophys. Biochem. Cytol., 8, 1 (1960).
Sadhukhan, P., and De, M. L., Exp. Cell Res., 20, 589 (1960).
Lippert, W., Proc. Stockholm Conf. Electron Microscopy, 73 (Almquist and Wiksell, 1957).
Lenz, F., Z. Naturforsch., 9, a, 185 (1954).
Sadhukhan, P., J. App. Phys., 29, 1235 (1958).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DE, M. Estimation of Mass Thickness of Biological Samples from their Electron Micrographs. Nature 192, 547 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/192547a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/192547a0
This article is cited by
-
Scattering Cross-Section of Carbon at Small Angle
Nature (1962)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.