Preliminary Exploration of Tomographic Microscopy

Terc Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

We propose the construction of a tabletop tomographic device -Optical Computer Tomograph (OCT)-to generate images of small semi-translucent objects, such as biological samples and manmade objects, and to conduct a preliminary exploration of its educational and scientific potential. The Optical Computer Tomograph will enable students to create 3D and cross-sectional representations to be displayed and manipulated on the computer screen. Students will be able to navigate the virtual image of the object (e.g. a slice of an onion or a small fish) similarly to how a radiologist navigates computer-generated images for a part of the human body obtained through MRI technology. The fact that the students will see and touch the represented object, in parallel with the manipulation of computer images, is likely to make a crucial difference for their understanding. This tool could naturally be used in relation to topics in middle and high school biology (e.g. cell structure), physics (e.g. light and matter), and mathematics. Regarding the latter, the mathematical transformations entailed in reconstructing an object from a sequence of flat projections involve a set of crucial pieces of mathematical concepts used extensively in countless technological applications. Experimenting with these processes of reconstruction can make this mathematics accessible to students-from middle school students to students of medicine and engineering. While the primary purpose of the OCT is educational as a classroom-teaching tool, we can foresee its use for scientific research, to investigate questions such as: What resolution can be achieved with an Optical Computer Tomograph? Does it matter whether the source of light is coherent (laser) or not? How do people process visual projections to envision objects in space? The only application of optical tomography that we know of is a "Computer Tomography Laser Mammography" being developed by a company in Florida. Their focus is unrelated to microscopy. Our proposed work could lead to the development of an unexplored field of research, that of visible-light tomographic microscopy.