Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. (Phone: 205/544-0034)
RELEASE: 93-024
ASTROPHYSICIST NAMED 1992 NASA INVENTOR OF THE YEAR
A NASA astrophysicist whose work in developing x-ray
telescopes led to his invention of a revolutionary new microscope, has been named NASA Inventor of the Year for 1992.
Richard B. Hoover of the Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala., was selected for his invention of the Water-Window Imaging x-ray Microscope. This instrument should enable researchers to see in great detail high contrast x-ray images of proteins, chromosomes and other tiny carbon structures inside living cells. Resolution of the microscope could be so high that it may produce detailed images of the building blocks of life -- tiny DNA molecules.
"I believe the microscope has immense potential in many
biological and medical research areas," Hoover said. These include genetic and gerontology research; gene splicing and genetic engineering; cancer research and early tumor cell diagnostic imaging; AIDS research including analysis of the viral structure of HIV and assessment of real time interactions of influencing drugs and antibodies; and chemical drug analysis.
The device uses x-rays instead of visible light to create
ultra-high resolution, high-contrast images. Will See Things Never Seen Before
The Microscope got its "water-window" name because it is
designed to operate in a narrow band of the x-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum at which water transmits or passes x-rays and appears transparent, and carbon absorbs x-rays and becomes opaque. In this "window" between 23.3 and 43.7 angstroms, the microscope can produce detailed images of the important carbon structures inside a living cell, which is made up primarily of water.
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Above this "window," carbon becomes more transparent to
x-rays so carbon structures will not show up. Below the "window," water absorbs x-rays and becomes opaque, obscuring the carbon structures inside the cell.
"This instrument essentially will allow us to see through
the water and into the living cell with very high resolution and high contrast, without using dyes or stains which produce limitations," explained Hoover. "When development is complete and cell biologists begin using the microscope, it is possible that they will begin seeing things they have never seen before."
The advance in capability provided by the microscope may be
as great as the difference between a doctor looking at a conventional photograph and a doctor looking at an x-ray picture of the human body, according to Hoover.
Hoover is a member of the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Division
of the Marshall Center's Space Science Laboratory. A veteran of 27 years with the center, his primary research has been devoted to development of advanced x-ray imaging systems. He has contributed significantly to improved technologies for x-ray optics.
Most recently, he was instrumental in the development of a
new kind of solar x-ray telescope. Launched aboard sounding rockets in 1987 and 1991, the solar x-ray telescopes have produced some of the highest resolution x-ray images ever taken of the sun. Hoover found that the new optics technologies developed for this x-ray telescope could be applied to the development of a high resolution x-ray microscope. In addition to his work at NASA, Hoover has devoted time to research in other disciplines. He is an internationally recognized authority on photomicroscopy and the micropaleontology of diatoms (a microscopic single-cell algae).
He graduated with honors from Henderson State University in
Arkadelphia, Ark., in 1964 with a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics. He was a physics instructor at the University of Arkansas from 1965 to 1966 and later studied optics at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is married to the former Miriam Jackson.
Hoover was selected to receive the Inventor of the Year
Award by NASA's General Counsel Office, Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Photos and a video news release of Richard B.
Hoover and the Water-Window Imaging X-Ray Microscope are available from the Marshall Space Flight Center Newsroom by calling 205/544-0034.