This just in from Research Associate and Histology Technician, Ellen-Therese Lamm:

The Gabriel Lab for Cellular and Molecular Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies (aka ‘the SEM room’), which houses the lab's Scanning Electron Microscope, is now equipped with something we’ve all been waiting for….a Motorized Microscope Stage. This means that paleontologists at MOR will now be able to control the microscope stage with a joystick - moving their thin-section specimens (thin slices of dinosaur bone) up and down, left and right, and back and forth.  They will be able to capture digital images as they scan and then stitch these images together. This will provide a much more complete image of large bone specimen microstructure.

Jan Strelow of Meridian Instrument Co. arrived Thursday August 7th and adapted our Nikon Optiphot2 POL scope with a PRIOR automated stage - the OptiScan II.  Later in the day, Scott Henderson and Dan Fong of Nikon arrived to set up the computer with X, Y and Z plane drivers for the stage.  The operation is run through our NIS-Elements Image Analysis (IA) software.  Dan will be returning in 1 month to complete the set-up, and offer training for MOR employees and students on both the stage and IA software.