An unexpected use of the garage

In the first of a new section where we invite our readers to tell us about their work, lives and scientific passions we hear from microscopist Carole Hackney ­­ who has done something quite remarkable with her garage…   It was only after Dave and I had cleared out the garage and painted the walls and floor with dust-proofing hard-wearing paint and had the appropriate electrical supply installed that I thought to ring my local Planning Officer at the Council Offices nearby. ‘I am ringing up to check whether I need to inform you about a change of use with regard to my garage.’ ‘What for, Madam?’ he said. ‘I am planning to install two electron microscopes.’ I replied. ‘Will it mean an increase in traffic on the road where you live?’ he asked. ‘Oh, no.’ I reassured him. ‘The specimens I am going to look at are very small and will come by post or I’ll go and collect them myself.’ ‘Well, there is no need for any planning consent then,’ he said, no doubt envisaging two rather small pieces of equipment. I installed a fire alarm and smoke detector and phoned my friend, Steve.  He had been my first EM technician when I had set up an electron microscope unit in a Neuroscience Department at a nearby University when we were both very young.  Steve and I had learnt as we went along, me from my PhD research and then him from me, and we had both moved on since, me to an American University then back to one in Britain whilst Steve went into industry. I finally moved back to the village that I had lived in previously to marry Dave, a longstanding scientific colleague and collaborator, now a senior academic and the Director of the EM Unit that I had originally set up. Steve now worked selling new microscopes and associated equipment and had come across another university just to the south of us who had decided to replace their very manual EMs and microtomy facilities with automated equipment for their multiuser facility.  They were about to throw away a good JEOL transmission electron microscope (TEM) with the same resolution as its replacement and a standard scanning electron microscope (SEM).  With my own light microscopes at home and customised garage, I could rehome the EMs for the price of removing them and installing them at a cost much below the price of new equipment.  I could also use them after being trained on similar equipment for my PhD at an EM unit at the University of Manchester where I studied protozoan ultrastructure. A few days later, the microscopes arrived and I became the only housewife on my cul-de-sac with my own garage EM unit.  I am now a sole trader with a little business called Advanced Imaging and Microscopy (AIM) and I do research with academic colleagues around the world on the nervous system and, in particular, the inner ear.  I have also worked with local industry.  For instance, I was contacted by a firm who wanted some images of the crystals they produced.  The lady turned up with some samples which I processed for SEM.  She came to collect the images that she wanted and was very pleased with the pictures of little cubes that I gave her but was disappointed they were in black-and-white.  As I had not been told that they were for an advertising brochure and simply thought that they were for dimensional measurements, I restrained my surprise. ‘What colour are they in bulk?’ I asked. ‘Well, sort of blue,’ she replied. ‘Well, give me a few hours and I’ll get back to you,’ I said.  It is amazing what you can do with Photoshop, isn’t it? The company were delighted with their beautiful blue images of crystals but surprised that I did not have a credit card reader at home.  Instead, a large wodge of notes in a brown envelope was delivered by hand to my doorstep in what must have looked like a very shady transaction to my neighbours!

I became the only housewife on my cul-de-sac with my own garage EM unit

The Fire Brigade came round to check my set-up when I told them about it but merely enjoyed the cups of tea I gave them and laughed at me.  But they did make a note that they might have to deal with high voltage equipment on fire at my house at, hopefully, sometime in the very distant future.  The neighbours also laughed and were more interested in the fish in my garden ponds than the kit in the garage.  Even the chiller that cools the microscopes does not make enough noise to annoy them So far, so good.  Now - does anyone want any images?