how much is there to get a electron microscope to look at living cells?

Question

the reason why beacuse i havent found out any info on how to find one.

please help me No smart remarks so little kids dont awnser if have nothing to say.

Answer 1

A typical electron microscope is several thousand dollars at least. And that's for a used and old one... (link 1)

More to the point, however, an electron microscope is probably the wrong tool to use if you just want to look at cells in general. A typical cell is about a micron across. You can see that in a light microscope, which won't cost you more than a hundred dollars unless you go for a really fancy one (even then it would be a fraction of the cost of an electron microscope - link 2).

An electron microscope will have twenty (or more) times better resolution, but unless you want to look at very fine structures within a cell it would be completely unnecessary (and perhaps a hindrance!). Just about every biology lab I've been to makes use almost exclusively of light microscopes for their work.

Answer 2

Usually an electron microscope will coat an object with a substance so that it can be visible to the electrons. This would kill anything alive so the living cells are actually dead when viewed.

Even using regular microscopes you sometimes have to stain parts of the cells in order to clearly determine what you want to view. What is infuriating about your question is for what purpose do you need the magnification for. Most biologists are perfectly content to view an object using a microscope, unless you have a good reason, why spend the money, time to learn to prepare the objects, and hire engineers to maintain an electron microscope if there is no clear purpose, which you seemingly don't have, probably won't learn and probably you are just being whimsical.

Answer 3

It is very difficult, but not impossible.

In general, samples for an electron microscope are dried and then coated with a conductor. For biological samples critical point drying is used to avoid the water/water vapour phase boundary damaging the cells to be looked at. Electron microscopes operate at high vacuum, so the samples must be dry before they are put in.

Of course, this means the cells are dead.

However, it is possible to use a differentially pumped sample chamber to put moist cells in the microscope. This preserves the high vacuum in the microscope but keeps the pressure near the cells at the vapour pressure of water, so they do not dry too quickly. This technique is called MEATSEM.

All the same, the samples will not live long with no atmosphere (only water vapour is present) and the electron beam itself will ultimately kill cells.

Answer 4

The reason why there isn't any info on how to find one is because.... there isn't one. Electron microscopes cannot look at living cells, because the preparation process kills cells like four times over. (it freezes them so quickly ice crystals don't even form, and then they replace the water with ethanol, coat it with ions or gold, slice it up, etc.). And even if you wanted a regular electron microscope, you probably won't be able to afford it; they cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Answer 5

Pretty much impossible. Electron microscopes work by beaming electrons at the target; this means the beam and the target must be in vacuum. Traditional units required samples be prepared pretty thoroughly; even today, when "wet" samples can be viewed, I doubt any living cell could survive the process. Sorry.

Answer 6

As far as I can remember from bio classes, you can't see live specimens using an electron microscope. Your best option would be to use an ordinary light microscope. Sorry you won't be able to see the organelles in action, though.

Answer 7

I'm assuming you're asking how much a scanning electron microscope costs.

A relatively low-cost SEM will cost about $75,000.

A high-quality, high definition SEM will range from $300,000 and above.