Zhiyong (Jahson) Suo, research scientist in ICAL. works on the biological materials extracted from a dinosaur fossil.

Lay people have long thought of dinosaur fossils as essentially rocks. They believed fossils were like dense chunks of stone with no real structure, Schweitzer said. The work done by Horner at MSU's Museum of the Rockies and other colleagues began to change that view, however. And development of state-of-the-art instruments like the ones at ICAL helped validate the idea that fossils are more bone than rock. Such technology enabled scientists to peer inside fossils, examine them on a molecular scale and come up with discoveries like the ones Schweitzer made in the past few years from an Eastern Montana dinosaur named Catherine.

Formerly known as B. rex, the oldest Tyrannosaurus rex on record has yielded 68-million-year-old protein, soft tissue, blood vessels and reproductive tissue virtually identical to that normally found in the bones of female birds during their egg-laying cycles. Schweitzer described all those finds in the journal, Science, and those findings vaulted her toward the top of her profession. But Schweitzer emphasized that she didn't work alone. Three of the five MSU researchers who collaborated on her latest paper in "Science," work in ICAL. Recep Avci is director of the lab. Zhiyong (Jahson) Suo is a research scientist. Fernando Teran Arce was a postdoctoral researcher at ICAL before becoming a research scientist at the Center for Nanomedicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Chicago.

"This facility is a huge, huge benefit to my research," Schweitzer said of ICAL. "It's a huge asset to this university. Huge."

John Priscu, an MSU polar biologist who specializes in Antarctica, said his research team has used ICAL for the past five years to examine deep ice samples from Antarctica and Greenland. While working with Avci, his team observed the first microorganisms from Lake Vostok in Antarctica. While working with David Mogk, the team learned the mineral makeup of Vostok sediment particles. Mogk, an MSU geology professor who helped establish ICAL, and Avci were listed as co-authors of the resulting papers. ICAL images were published in "Science" and popular magazines such as "Smithsonian" and "American Scientist."

"Recep took the final AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) image of a microbe from Lake Vostok, which has received accolades from scientists around the world," Priscu added. The image was of the highest quality and was the first of a microbe from Lake Vostock, he explained. The lake is located 2.5 miles below the surface of the Antarctic sheet.

"However, Recep likes to tell people that it is the worst AFM image that he has taken," Priscu said. "He is way too modest."

ICAL started out in 1992 in the basement of AJM Johnson Hall with one instrument left behind by a previous operator. It was a broken-down Auger 595 spectrometer, part of Jerry Lapeyre's CRISS facility. Its "guts were all over the floor," Avci said.

Avci got the Auger 595 to work and went on to use it for analyzing surfaces. MSU then bought a Scanning Electron Microscope, funded in part by Murdock Trust, and has continued to add a major instrument every couple of years. ICAL is now located on the top floor of the Engineering/Physical Sciences building and contains two Scanning Electron Microscopes, including a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope; Powder X-ray diffraction, Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer, an Atomic Force Microscope, and an array of other instruments that offer high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. Total worth is estimated at $4 million, with funding coming from grants, MSU's Office of the Vice President for Research, Creativity and Technology Transfer; MSU's Thermal Biology Institute, Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials, and ICAL user fees.

"Everything is under one roof," Avci said. "That's very important for people coming in here."

ICAL is unique because it gives researchers one destination instead of many for imaging or chemical analysis, Avci continued. Other universities or institutions may own the same instruments as ICAL, but they tend to scatter them in different rooms or buildings. A Scanning Electron Microscope may be in one department, for example, and an Atomic Force Microscope in another. Scientists go from room to room to carry out their research. They deal with a variety of supervisors.

ICAL on the other hand, lets researchers stay in one room. They can "hop from one instrument to another without dealing with many different people," Avci said.

A sense of ownership is another benefit of ICAL, Avci said. Trusted researchers receive lab keys, and the lab is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Researchers can be trained to run the ICAL instruments themselves or watch others do it.

"We are proud of that," Avci said. "People feel like they own this without owning it. That's a very important impression to give people. People don't like micromanagement."

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 11/27/2007