It’s Electron Microscopy, Jim – But Not As We Know It…

For moment, I thought I was on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise …but no, it was actually the launch of Leeds Electron Microscopy & Spectroscopy Centre (LEMAS) at the University of Leeds Bragg Centre for Materials Research. We’ve come a long way since 1943 when textile physicist and pioneer of molecular biology William Astbury first installed an electron microscope in the toilets of the Textiles Deptartment at the University of Leeds!

Powerful electron microscopes at LEMAS centre, University of Leeds with slide detailing history of electron microscopy at Leeds in the background
Physicist William Astbury peers down one of the very first electron microscopes to arrive in the UK, in 1943
Physicist William Astbury peers down one of the very first electron microscopes to arrive in the UK, in 1943
Powerful electron microscopes at LEMAS - Leeds Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy Centre
Powerful electron microscopes at LEMAS – Leeds Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy Centre