THIS ORGANIZATION WILL REFINE, BUILD, AND COMMERCIALIZE A CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE CHAMBER WHICH, WHEN OPERATED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE (SEM), WILL ALLOW THE USER SIMULTANEOUSLY TO IMAGE AND PERFORM X-RAY ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS ON

THIS ORGANIZATION WILL REFINE, BUILD, AND COMMERCIALIZE A CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE CHAMBER WHICH, WHEN OPERATED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE (SEM), WILL ALLOW THE USER SIMULTANEOUSLY TO IMAGE AND PERFORM X-RAY ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS ON LIVING ORGANISMS. THE ACTUAL OPERATION OF A DIFFERENTIALLY PUMPED CHAMBER HAS PREVIOUSLY BEEN DEMONSTRATED WITH A TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPE (TEM). HOWEVER, VERY LITTLE RESEARCH HAS BEEN PERFORMED IN DEVELOPING A CHAMBER FOR THE SEM. THIS IS MAINLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT VERY FEW RESEARCHERS HAVE THE EQUIPMENT TO PERFORM SUCH STUDIES. WITH OUR PRESENT EQUIPMENT WE CAN DEVELOP A STATE-OF-THE-ART ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER. THIS CHAMBER COULD THEN ADVANCE ALL THE FIELDS OF BIOLOGY BY ALLOWING DYNAMIC STUDIES OF CELL-CELL INTERACTIONS AND CELL-CHEMICAL INTERACTIONS. VIDEO RECORDING OF THESE EVENTS WILL ALLOW DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE INTERACTIONS. PHASE I FUNDING WILL ALLOW US TO MODIFY OUR CURRENTLY OPERATIONAL GAS REACTION STAGE INTO A PROTOTYPE ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER. THIS PROTOTYPE WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMUM DIMENSIONS FOR TWO COAXIALLY ALIGNED APERTURES. THESE APERTURES WILL ALLOW PRESSURES APPROACHING 1 ATMOSPHERE TO EXIST AROUND THE SPECIMEN. THIS PROTOTYPE WILL ALSO PERMIT US TO DETERMINE EXPERIMENTALLY THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF A SCINTILLATOR-PHOTOMULTIPLIER TYPE DETECTOR THAT WILL YIELD THE MAXIMUM SIGNAL DETECTION. PHASE II FUNDING WILL ALLOW THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE STAGE AND INITIATION OF EXPERIMENTS ON LIVING ORGANISMS. AN AMERICAN MICROSCOPE MANUFACTURER HAS ALREADY EXPRESSED