During the opening ceremony, Managing Director of Hitachi High-Tech (Malaysia), Mr Hidehiro Yamada, expressed his excitement for the programmes, which he hopes will “invite the community to explore the complex relationships between nature and technology through interactive displays enhanced by our (scanning electron microscope) SEM technology.” The event also provided sneak peeks into our public outreach programmes, ‘Secrets of Extraordinary Microworlds’ and upcoming microscopy workshops as well as our temporary exhibition, ‘​​Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species’ by SISTRUM (which opened on 21 May 2024).

The Museum’s Education team, as well as our researchers, have been using Hitachi High-Tech’s state-of-the-art TM4000Plus II Tabletop Microscope, since the end of January 2024 for outreach and taxonomic work respectively. The TM4000Plus II is a powerful microscope that uses focused electron beams, instead of light, to create immensely detailed images of specimens. As electrons have much shorter wavelengths as compared to light, electron microscopes allow users to see objects at significantly high magnifications of up to 100,000 times!

“Our partnership with Hitachi is a transformative step in science education and public outreach. Specifically, this collaboration allows us to make accessible to all, a tangible, hands-on experience of applying a cutting-edge technology in the study of biodiversity. We are excited to see how this initiative will spark curiosity and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the natural world,” said Assoc Prof Darren Yeo, Head of LKCNHM.

Encouraging curiosity via hands-on exploration 

The microscope is being used by the Education team as part of their June Holiday programme ‘Secrets of Extraordinary Microworlds’, which provides an exclusive hands-on opportunity for participants to operate the TM4000Plus II. From August 2024, the Museum will also offer students from local secondary and tertiary schools a chance to study visually obscured aspects of biodiversity using the SEM.

As part of the Museum’s latest temporary exhibition ‘Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species’, artists at SISTRUM also brought to life ‘Filtering Microworlds (2024)’ using images from the TM4000Plus II. This six-minute video delves into the hidden realms of marine sponges, allowing viewers to be mesmerised by the hypnotic soundscape as they glimpse into a world invisible to the naked eye. Using the SEM, SISTRUM produced a unusual and thought-provoking blend of images, questioning how we see our natural world and blurring the lines between human, nature and machine.

In this sonic and visual installation, SISTRUM unveils a mesmerizing world generated by a machine learning algorithm fed with visual data from 19th-century scientific expeditions in Southeast Asia. The new images are “hybrid and mutated forms that defy traditional taxonomic conventions, challenging us to reconsider how we classify and relate to the natural world,” according to Ms Lim Shu Min of SISTRUM. Ms Lim also expressed her hopes that the exhibition would “inspire (people) to think differently about nature, to see it not just as something to be catalogued and controlled, but as a vibrant, interconnected web of life that we are a part of”.

The event concluded with a live demonstration of the microscope, allowing attendees to experience the usage of the SEM first-hand, as well as a first access visit to the ‘Nature Remixed’ exhibition. Attendees were also encouraged to sign up for the upcoming biodiversity outreach programmes to further their understanding of the SEM’s usage in research and education.

This event would not have been possible without the hard work of all involved. Thank you to Hitachi Asia, Hitachi High-Tech Singapore, Hitachi High-Tech America, SISTRUM and our invitees for making this event a success!

Book your tickets to the Museum to visit our exhibition ‘Nature Remixed: Learning and Unlearning from New Species’ and sign up for ‘Secrets of Extraordinary Microworlds’ to explore the microscopic realm of nature (hurry—tickets are selling fast)!