Scott Payne, acting director of the Electron Microscopy Center core facility, was the February winner of the international image contest sponsored by JEOL USA Inc.

Payne’s scanning electron microscope image showed the interior of cells in fully hydrated cooked lentil using a cryogenic technique: freezing the sample in liquid nitrogen and collecting images from that flash-frozen state.

Visualizing changes in starch and other components of high-water-content foods throughout the cooking process may provide insights leading to improved nutrition and palatability.

“Drying and other preparation methods all introduce artifacts, changes not present naturally," Payne said. "Cryo SEM lets us see things that just cannot be seen in any other way—completely unaltered intracellular structure. And the method has potential for so many fields. I look forward to hearing from other researchers who can make use of this elegant technique.”

The winning image will be featured in JEOL’s 2017 microscopy calendar. You can preview it here.

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