SPECTRAL EVOLUTION Participates in Microbial Diversity Course at Woods Hole
Spectroradiometer capabilities demonstrated as part of the Marine Biological Laboratory's Summer Education Program.
Lawrence, MAÂ — The Marine Biological Laboratory's Summer Education Program attracts a large crowd of graduate students and established investigators. This year, SPECTRAL EVOLUTION participated by providing a demonstration of its field spectroradiometers and loaning the program a spectroradiometer for the Microbial Diversity Course.
The field portable spectroradiometer was requested for use in two types of experiments, according to Dr. Kurt Hanselmann of the Microbial Diversity Faculty. The first involved studies of radiation energy availability and variability in sand flats, including incident radiation, reflectance by surface sand and penetration through top layers to depths where phototrophic bacteria make use of the sand filtered radiation. This experiment involves collecting and interpreting multispectral data in conditions between light and dark and dry and wet in an area of tidal fluctuations in the Sippewissett sand flats in Massachusetts.
The second set of experiments were lab-based. These experiments included using the SR-1900 spectrometer for:
• Determining pigment spectra from growing cultures without taking samples out of the bottle
• Recording spectra of individual microbial colonies on Agar plates
• Measuring selenium production by microbes without sampling from tubes
In addition to looking at the characteristics of microbial spectra in the visible (VIS) wavelengths, the experiments also investigated the usefulness of the short wave infrared wavelengths (SWIR).
"To our knowledge, this is the first time that a SPECTRAL EVOLUTION field portable spectroradiometer was used in microbiological studies in the field and in the laboratory," said Dr. Hanselmann. "Every summer, the MBL Microbial Diversity Course trains 20 students from all over the world in techniques to enrich and isolate microorganisms from natural environments and to characterize the conditions in their habitats."
Dr. Maurice Kashdan, Head of Marketing and Sales at SPECTRAL EVOLUTION demonstrated the operation and features of the field portable, full range PSR-3500 spectroradiometer and delivered an SR-1900 field spectroradiometer for use during the course.
The PSR-3500 spectroradiometer has a range from 350-2500nm using a 512-element UV-enhanced silicon array and two 256-element extended InGaAs arrays. DARWin SP Data Acquisition software is included and saves all spectra as ASCII files for easy use with other analysis programs.
The SR-1900 field spectroradiometer has a spectral range of 350-1900nm using a 512-element UV-enhanced silicon array and a 256-element extended InGaAs array. It is ideal for use in the field or in the lab and also includes DARWin SP Data Acquisition software.
For more information on spectroradiometers for microbial diversity projects:
http://www.spectralevolution.com/applications_microbial_diversity.html
About SPECTRAL EVOLUTION
Established in 2004, SPECTRAL EVOLUTION is a leading manufacturer of laboratory and handheld portable spectrometers, spectroradiometers and spectrophotometers. SPECTRAL EVOLUTION spectrometers are used worldwide for many mission-critical lab and field applications in mining, remote sensing, vegetative studies, ground truthing, environmental and climate studies, developing satellite calibrations, and more, due to their reliable, robust, rugged design and user-friendly one-touch features.Â
SPECTRAL EVOLUTION maintains a facility in Lawrence, Massachusetts which houses design, prototyping, manufacturing and service facilities for the instruments that it markets and sells worldwide, either through direct sales, OEM sales or through distributor agents. EZ-ID and oreXpress are trademarks of SPECTRAL EVOLUTION.
Press contact
Mo Kashdan
Marketing Sales
978-687-1833
Maurice.kashdan@spectralevolution.com
SPECTRAL EVOLUTION
1 Canal Street, Unit B1
Lawrence, MA 01840 USA
www.spectralevolution.com
