From the Editor Space: The Final Frontier


I, like many Trekkies of my generation, have been fascinated with the Space Race and


all that it has brought to scientific discovery. From the flights of Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard in 1961 (yes, I was around back then!), watching the first walk on the moon by Neil Armstrong, to extended stays of 6 months or more by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), space exploration has led to the improvement and development of numerous products used in our everyday life including microwave ovens, cold weather wear, digital cameras, memory foam, Velcro, and more. MSA has long recognized the importance of microscopy to the space program having hosted astronauts Al Worden (Cleveland, 1997) and Donald Pettit (Portland, 2015) at Microscopy & Microanalysis meetings. In the mid to late 1990s, I was fortunate to be part of a team at the University of South


Carolina to have several experiments fly on the space shuttles. Tis opportunity allowed us to examine cell:cell and cell:ECM structure and interactions of cardiovascular fibroblasts and myocytes under zero gravity. Cells were plated in a laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center, transferred to the shuttle, and maintained in culture while in space. When cells were returned to Earth, I had the privilege of imaging them by confocal microscopy to determine if there were structural differences when compared to control cells grown in the presence of gravity. A highlight of my career was being present for the launch of the STS-95 Discovery mission in 1998, and to have one of our experiments handled by John Glenn when he returned to space on the Discovery. And now, not even 25 years later, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) capable of elemental analysis is available for research on the ISS. Te Voxa MochiiTM


is fully


operational in space and being used to image academic, commercial, and NASA samples. In the past, microscopic analysis required sending samples back to laboratories on Earth, which caused significant delays in identification of problems including failure analysis. Having an SEM aboard the ISS now provides elemental analysis and nano-imaging in low Earth orbit while supporting microgravity and engineering research. More information about MochiiTM


on the ISS can be found at: Te Mochii ISS National Laboratory — Voxa


and Mochii Space Vehicle & Crew Safety — Voxa. Microscopy is indeed playing a role in conquering the final frontier!


Publication Objective: to provide information of interest to microscopists.


Microscopy Today is a controlled-circulation trade magazine owned by the Microscopy Society of America that is published six times a year in the odd months. Editorial coverage spans all microscopy techniques including light microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, electron microscopy, ion-beam techniques, and the wide range of microanalytical methods. Readers and authors come from both the life sciences and the physical sciences. The typical length of an article is about 2,000 words plus figures and tables; feature articles are longer. Interested authors should consult “Instructions for Contributors” on the Microscopy Today website: www.microscopy-today.com.


ISSN 1551-9295


Disclaimer The Microscopy Society of America and the editors cannot be held responsible for opinions, errors, or for any consequences arising from the use of information contained in Microscopy Today. The appearance of advertising in Microscopy Today does not constitute an endorsement or approval by the Microscopy Society of America of any claims or information found in the advertisements. By submitting a manuscript to Microscopy Today, the author warrants that the article is original or that the author has written permission to use copyrighted material published elsewhere. While the contents of this magazine are believed to be accurate at press time, neither the Microscopy Society of America, the editors, nor the authors can accept legal responsibility for errors or omissions.


© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America. All rights reserved.


Editorial Staff Robert L. Price, Editor-in-Chief


bob.price@uscmed.sc.edu (803) 216-3824 Gennifer Levey, Production Manager


glevey@meridianartpro.com (212) 780-0315 Beverly Maleeff, Administrative Editor bev@alumni.psu.edu Charles E. Lyman, Senior Editor charles.lyman@lehigh.edu Phil Oshel, Senior Editor oshel1pe@cmich.edu Stephen Carmichael, Columnist carmichael.stephen@mayo.edu John Shields, Columnist johnshields59@gmail.com Cameron Varano, Pioneers Editor cameron.varano@gmail.com Richard Edelmann, Education Editor edelmare@miamioh.edu Deb Kelly, Microscopy 101 Editor debkelly@psu.edu Rich Fiore, Product and Industry News Editor rich@scifisalesinc.com Rich Martens, Calendar Editor rmartens@ues.com Nikolaus Cordes, Digital Content Editor nikolaus.cordes@inl.gov Thomas Kelly, Chief Innovation Judge thomas.kelly@steaminstruments.com Robert Simmons, Chief Micrograph Judge robert.simmons@briarwillow.com


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Magazine website:


http://www.microscopy-today.com Free subscriptions are available.


Publisher Cambridge University Press One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor New York, New York 10006 (212) 337-5000


Circulation: 18,000


Editorial Board Nasim Alem, Penn State University Arlan Benscoter, Lehigh University John Bozzola, Southern Illinois University Peter Crozier, Arizona State University Vinayak Dravid, Northwestern University David Grubb, Cornell University Bryan Huey, University of Connecticut Heather Lowers, U.S. Geological Survey John Mackenzie, North Carolina State Univ. Paul Maddox, U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Ania Majewska, U. Rochester Med School Joseph Michael, Sandia National Labs Caroline Miller, Indiana University Brian M. Patterson, Los Alamos National Lab John Reffner, John Jay College, SUNY Ian Robertson, University of Wisconsin Phillip Russell, Appalachian State University Bradley Thiel, SUNY Polytechnic Institute Simon Watkins, University of Pittsburgh Cynthia Zeissler, Nat. Inst. of Stds. and Tech. (NIST)


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