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April 2023 – Didcot Cafe Scientifique, Gea van de Kerkhof, Advanced microscopy: studying glittery bacteria
18th April 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
18th April 2023
7.30pm
In the cafe bar at Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
Advanced microscopy: studying glittery bacteria
From the first reveal of “tiny animals”, the microbes that are too small to be seen by the naked eye, through to images of the molecules that make up the world around us, the development of different microscopy techniques has enabled many of the world’s greatest scientific breakthroughs. In this talk we will explore how combining such complementary microscopy methods can facilitate new insights in the fascinating world of structurally coloured bacteria. These harmless bacteria create sparkling iridescent colours by organising themselves in highly ordered patterns, without using pigmentation. But how does the organisation of these bacteria relate to the colours we see?
Gea van de 
Kerkhof is a postdoctoral researcher at the Diamond Light Source, in a combined role with Johnson Matthey. Here, she develops and uses new sample environments to study dynamics of various systems using a combination of X-ray and electron microscopy.
Gea did her Bachelor and Master of Science at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and then continued with a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Over time, she became fascinated with imaging and visualising the invisible microscopic world around us. During her PhD she started studying structurally coloured bacteria in collaboration with the company Hoekmine BV. For this work she received a PhD prize from the Cambridge Centre for Physical Biology.