A NES VISIT TO THE JOHN INNES DISCOVERY DAY

13th September 2009

Had the Society not had such an excellent lecture from Lucy Collinson on the medical applications of electron microscopes (March 23rd 2009), its extremely doubtful if I would have taken the trouble to visit the John Innes Discovery Day on the 13th September 2009. You might think that the John Innes Centre as a boring government research institute studying genetics and as a result you would have missed a visit to a fascinating world of research, a world not normally open to the public.

After Lucy Collinson’s talk, the chance to see a real electron microscope actually working was an opportunity not to be missed, thus it was to the Microscopy Department at John Innes Centre that NES members were specifically invited to have a ‘hands on’ demonstration of the microscopes. JIC have two state of the art electron microscopes in their Microscopy Department so if you are think how much are they worth; think £ millions!!

After an extremely interesting talk about the microscopes, how the slides are prepared (with difficulty and a lot of dexterity), the difficulties associated with maintaining such complex machinery, apparently the microscopes can be badly affected by an unearthed external field.
                   Mike Vincent awaiting the rest of the party

We learned the microscopes are so sensitive to movement that they have to be housed in a purpose built, specially designed building. Not so much of a problem on agricultural land in Norwich, a terrific problem if in central London you have the Underground running underneath the building. These are just some of the topics discussed during the visit, questions from members were coming so thick and fast I was at pains to record them.

Nigel Rafcliff giving the SEM a more detailed examination                    Some of the rest of the party joining Nigel at the SEM facility

The tour of the Microscopy Department took about three quarters of an hour, then it was suggested that perhaps that as we were on site it may be a good idea to have a look at some of the other buildings and displays, the Genome Centre for example, the genetically modified purple tomato, the map of the human genome or perhaps the Teacher Scientist network. I won’t bore you with a list of all the attractions on offer, let it be said that the John Innes Institute pulled out all the stops to make the public aware of some of the things which are going on behind the scenes of research which we generally take for granted. In fact the visit was so interesting that some of our members who had intended to be home for lunch were still on site at five when they closed. How do I know, easy, well I was one of the last to leave.

This is the first time that the John Innes Centre has opened its doors to the public, interest from the shown by the public was high, visitor figures I gather were high throughout the day, I hope that this Discovery Day will not be their last, lts hope we don’t have to wait another hundred years for another. It must have taken a considerable effort from all concerned to organise an event of this scale.

Incidently, because John Innes invented compost in the first place their name is still associated with the product, however they have not manufactured compost in any form for many, many years.

Mike Vincent                Sept 2009