Kerstin Pingel

Modern image analysis systems perform highly sophisticated image processing functions on images from an automated microscope and digital camera. 50 years ago, the first image analysis system was analogue, based on a video camera and the area measurements could be read from a meter. Nevertheless, it marked the beginning of automation in this field.

Nobody is the same. Whether large or small, well- or slightly built, left- or right-handed, everyone has different demands of the tool they work with for many hours a day. This is particularly true of laboratory workstations, where routine tasks such as pipetting or microscope or microtome work require a static posture.

Every ant has a story to tell. And what better person to tell it than Brian Fisher? Fisher is an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences and Project Manager of AntWeb.org. The internet portal illustrates the diversity of ants by providing information and high quality color images of many of the approximately 10,000 known species of ants.

“Germanic barbarians defeat super army!” That is the kind of news headline you might have seen in the year 9 AD about the victory of the Germanic tribes over three Roman legions under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest is regarded as one of the most momentous battles of antiquity, and for a long time scientists have puzzled over where the fighting may have taken place.

An insight into the unknown world of the deep sea was given in an exhibition staged by the Senckenberg Society together with the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Shown in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, Germany, the "Deep Sea" exhibition was a huge public success in 2009. From May to September 2010, the exhibition has been shown in the Natural History Museum in London. Scientists of the Senckenberg Society work with stereomicroscopes and digital cameras both in the laboratory and on the research ships.

Laser dissection is used in a large number of research fields, e.g. neurology, cancer research, plant analysis. Here, user report on the research results they have attained by using laser microdissection.

Only a few decades ago, the diagnosis ‘cataracts’ meant loss of vision in the near future. Today, cataract surgery is the most common operation worldwide.

Everyone knows that antique marble sculptures were white. Or were they? Scientists of the Copenhagen Polychromy Network (CPN) help to show that the statues of the Greeks and Romans were decorated with extravagant ornaments and sumptuous colours. With the help of a surgical microscope and digital microscopy, the conservators detect tiny traces of paint pigment that suggest a veritable feast of colour in ancient times.

In the 2nd century BC, Baiae in the Gulf of Naples was a notorious bathing resort and spa for wealthy Romans. Today, part of the town is submerged under the sea and can be visited as an 80,000 square metre archaeological underwater park. The magnificent mosaics from the underwater ruins are analysed at the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro (ISCR) of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities in Rome.