MSU Receives Geek Grant for $248,000 Microscope
FairCityNews.com | Aug 27, 2009 | Comments 0
Springfield, MO—Biology, physics and chemistry geeks at Missouri State University “flipped their collective shiz-nit” upon learning they received a grant from the National Science Foundation to pay for a $248,350 microscope.
Purchase of a state-of-the-art confocal microscopy system will occur during the fall semester. Upon hearing the news, MSU President Michael T. Nietzel said, “we got how much to spend on a microscope…how much for a what-what?”
According to Marvin Minsky, the microscope’s inventor, a confocal microscope can increase micrograph contrast or reconstruct three-dimensional images by using a spatial pinhole to eliminate out-of-focus light in specimens that are thicker than the focal plane. “Woot-woot!” exclaimed chemistry student and part time medieval-battle recreationist Lewis Guthersberg as he pumped both fists into the air, stumbled over his lab coat and accidentally smashed a Bunsen burner with a petri dish.
“In today’s struggling economy, we are extremely shocked to have been awarded these numerous benjamins to facilitate research and education,” said one half geeky, half kinda cool university spokesman. A job seeker at the Missouri Career Center simply said, “they got how much for that thing? Man, I’ll eliminate ‘out-of-focus light’ if you pay me a quarter of a million dollars too. How many jobs does that microscope create?”
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The MSU theatre department was denied their grant request of $2,098 to pay for printed programs for the upcoming season of live productions because “science is the coolest,” according to Guthersberg as he sniffled, rubbed his nose onto his lab coat sleeve, jarring off his Coke bottle-thick glasses which disintegrated instantly when landig into a nearby canister of acid.
Filed Under: Technology