The Scanning Electron Microscope

Jeremy Poole is a retired engineer, living in Sherborne. 

He has been interested in photography and microscopy for many years. In 2016 he added a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to his collection of light microscopes, which he installed in a building in his garden in Sherborne. He makes electron micrographs of a wide variety of subjects as much for their aesthetic appeal as to pursue any particular line of research. Since acquiring his SEM he has had his images featured in three calendars published on-line by the Royal Microscopical Society, has been a runner up in the biennial Scientific Imaging Competition from the same Society (in 2021), and as a lockdown project during the COVID-19 pandemic he produced a book of his electron micrographs that earned him a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

The talk will start with a description of the Scanning Electron Microscope and how it differs from its “cousin” the Transmission Electron Microscope. He will then describe, in simple terms, how it is able to produce an image with a three-dimensional appearance. Following this he will provide an illustrated account of a collaborative project in which he was involved, to document the external anatomy of the green shield bug.