"NES Member's visit to the Crick Institute, London"
12 NES members met Dr Lucy Collinson Head of the Electron Microscopy department for a tour of the Francis Crick Institute facility with
particular emphasis on the role of Electron Microscopy.
Dr Collinson first gave us a brief tour of the building explaining that it houses 1200 scientists and 300 support staff. The building
consists of a ground floor containing administration, canteen and exhibition areas, 4 laboratory and office floors, 4 service floors
above and 4 basement levels extending down 28m. Access and daylight is provided from large atriums that divide the building across
its length and width.
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The visiting group with our host, Dr Lucy Collinson |
The building has been carefully designed to promote the cross communication between the different disciples of
scientist in the breakout areas. A very complex air handling system ensures rapid changes of atmosphere and collection of waste heat.
The roof generates electric power from Photovoltaic modules.
Power supplies are critical and have to be continuous and steady.
Standby power generation and diesel oil storage are provided in the basement. Overall building cost was approximately £700m.
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Overlooking the main entrance way to the building |
Overview of the atrium area showing the different 'mixing of minds; interlinking bridges at different
floor levels |
We were then taken to the basement levels and the Electron Microscopy areas. All the Electron Microscopes where installed in magnetically
shielded rooms and mounted on 1m thick concrete air sprung isolating bases.
We were shown an X ray machine, a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) and equipment for
the preparation of samples by slices employing a diamond knife. The various applications, resolution capabilities, operation
flexibilities and methodologies were explained for each machine.
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A scanning electron microscope |
One of the other scanning electron microscopes |
One of the transmission electron microscopes |
The group were then shown the Prototyping room by Martin Jones. This area consisting of try-out tables on which experimental assemblies
were fabricated to increase the speed of data acquisition from the Electron Microscopes. Throughout the tour both Dr Collinson and Martin
Jones answered a continuous stream of questions. The tour was extremely informative and provided the participants with a fascinating
insight into the work of one the largest biomedical research facilities in Europe.
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A microscopic view of a 'slicing knife' on the attached monitor screen |
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View of the specimen preperation system |
The prototyping pneumatically balanced optical table. |
Many thanks to our excellent host, Dr Lucy Collinson for arranging the day and giving up a significant chunk of her valuable time showing us around
and filling us in with a myriad of facts about the Crick Institte. Thanks also to the many memers of her group. in particular Martin Jones, who took
time out of their busy days to tell us what they were up to. We only hope that the disturbance was minimal.
Peter Davies (photos Tim Birt and Peter Davies) April 2018
