Blood-sucking louse brings award to Sussex
As a rule, blood-sucking head lice give us nothing but nits and an itchy scalp. But they've come up trumps for technician Dave Randall: a microscopic image of a head louse acrobatically scaling three strands of hair has won him a Biomedical Image Award from the Wellcome Trust.

The story behind the award began two years ago, when commercial photographer Garry Hunter asked Dave to help with a shoot he was doing for pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The photographer needed access to a scanning electron microscope, which gives better resolution than a standard microscope.

The scanning electron microscope is normally used for research and teaching by faculty and students from biology, chemistry, geography, engineering and archaeology. But it's also available for commercial work.

So Dave received through the post a pot of dead head lice, preserved in alcohol. Garry asked Dave to prepare the specimens to make them look lifelike. He then mounted them on strands of his own hair and put the still-life arrangement under the microscope. Garry was the art director, telling Dave precisely how he wanted the elements of the image arranged.

Pfizer used the picture to promote one of its products, a treatment for head lice. It then gave them to the Wellcome Trust, a private charity that funds biomedical research and also maintains a medical photographic library.

Dave thought nothing more of the image until he received a phone call from Garry to say that they had won an award. The awards ceremony was at the Wellcome Library in Euston Road, London, on 13 July

(text from Bulletin - 29th July 2005)

web site of Garry Hunter

Life Sciences (Services) SEM Home Page Instrumentation Introduction to electron microscopy How an SEM works Beam / sample interactions Setting up the microscope Preparing the sample Critical point drying (CPD) Mounting the sample Sputter coating (Gold) Carbon Coating Cryo-Stage SEM Image Gallery 2005 Wellcome Trust Image Award
	2005 Wellcome Trust Image Awards
	Blood-sucking louse brings award to Sussex As a rule, blood-sucking head lice give us nothing but nits and an itchy scalp. But they've come up trumps for technician Dave Randall: a microscopic image of a head louse acrobatically scaling three strands of hair has won him a Biomedical Image Award from the Wellcome Trust. The story behind the award began two years ago, when commercial photographer Garry Hunter asked Dave to help with a shoot he was doing for pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The photographer needed access to a scanning electron microscope, which gives better resolution than a standard microscope. The scanning electron microscope is normally used for research and teaching by faculty and students from biology, chemistry, geography, engineering and archaeology. But it's also available for commercial work. So Dave received through the post a pot of dead head lice, preserved in alcohol. Garry asked Dave to prepare the specimens to make them look lifelike. He then mounted them on strands of his own hair and put the still-life arrangement under the microscope. Garry was the art director, telling Dave precisely how he wanted the elements of the image arranged. Pfizer used the picture to promote one of its products, a treatment for head lice. It then gave them to the Wellcome Trust, a private charity that funds biomedical research and also maintains a medical photographic library. Dave thought nothing more of the image until he received a phone call from Garry to say that they had won an award. The awards ceremony was at the Wellcome Library in Euston Road, London, on 13 July (text from Bulletin - 29th July 2005) web site of Garry Hunter