[MURG] Non-invasive 3-D Scanning

[Joseph J. Strout]

At 5:37 AM -0500 12/15/03, Yan King Yin wrote:

>I know, high-resolution non-invasive scanning is
>unfeasible because of the short wave-length
>requirement that will evaoporate the brain. But
>there may still be hope. Suppose we just want to
>scan the 3-D connectivity. This requires a resolution
>of about 0.3um.

How do you figure that?  The connections (axons, dendrites (including 
spines), and synapses) are pretty much the finest level of detail we 
need; cell bodies are much bigger.  It's from the assumption that we 
need to capture these, that the estimate of 10 nm resolution is made. 
(If you look at an electron micrograph at a 10 nm resolution, you can 
clearly see the structures.  At 0.3 um, or even 0.1 um (100 nm), you 
won't be able to adequately resolve important things like synapses 
and spine necks.

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