More than half a million annual visitors will soon
be able to view the amazing development of live embryos at San Francisco’s Exploratorium
thanks of two Vibration Isolation Laboratory Tables donated by TMC.
Part of the museum’s Microscope Imaging Station, the exhibit
features a time-lapse video, taken under a microscope, of a transparent
zebrafish maturing from a single cell to a fully developed hatching
egg. It is essential that the image remain completely motionless
for the entire 61 hours of the embryo's development. Most imaging
applications require only a few seconds of quiescent performance.
“ Our 63-500 Series Table is perfect for this application,” said  Steve
Ryan, TMC’s Vice President, Marketing. “The table provides
extremely efficient vibration isolation of floor noise both vertically
and horizontally. In addition to the isotropic nature of the isolation,
the Gimbal Piston™ vibration isolation system works well with
light mass loads and maintains the efficient isolator performance
down to the low amplitude input levels typical of building floor
vibrations. The table was specifically designed for use with optical
microscopes such as the Zeiss Axiocam 200M inverted microscope used
in this exhibit."
The time-lapse sequencing is accomplished
by outfitting the microscope with a digital CCD camera attachment.
The camera is controlled to take a photograph every six minutes.
A sequence of 610 photos over the 61-hour period is compiled to
create the time-lapse sequence that shows the development of the
zebrafish embryo from a single cell through hatching.
The Imaging Station was a particularly challenging vibration isolation
problem due to a combination of factors. Complicating the requirement
that the image remain vibration free for 61 hours was the Exploratorium’s
location. The museum is situated in San Francisco's Palace of Fine
Arts Building, built in  1915.
The exhibit is located on the more recently
constructed mezzanine level, an area appropriate for light office
space but not at all suited to sensitive time-lapse photography.
The corrugated steel floor is supported by lightweight steel beams
and steel stanchions.
 The
problem of the lightweight, resonant, high-ambient-vibration floor
is compounded by the excessive surrounding foot traffic. Approximately
600,000 people visit the Exploratorium every year. Most visitors
are children who run and jump within feet of the exhibit. This “onboard” source
of noise excites the light, resonant floor into a severe vibration
environment, hardly suitable for precision microscopy.
The Microscope Imaging Station will be completed in the fall of
2003. In the meantime, as the exhibit evolves, visitors will be
able to view time-lapse videos, observe the equipment in action,
and participate in the exhibit’s development.
“
Our ultimate goal is to provide visitors with
access to the standard user controls (x, y on the stage, focus,
magnification, and lighting),” said Charles Carlson, Director
of Life Sciences at the Exploratorium. “And we will display
a host of other organisms, such as worms and fruit flies, which,
like the zebrafish, provide spectacular images. In addition, we
plan to extend our resources to scientists, so that visitors – classrooms,
teachers, and the public – can observe actual experiments
relevant to biomedical issues and general biology.”
Major support for this project comes from the National Institutes
of Health and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with additional
support from Carl Zeiss Microscopes, Technical Instruments, and
Universal Imaging, as well as Technical Manufacturing Corporation.
The Exploratorium was established in 1969 as an interactive science
museum and, as such, has inspired hundreds of similar science centers
around the world. It is a dynamic force and a leader in informal
science, training mathematics and science students and teachers
for more than 25 years.
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