On 20 May 2024, the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM) hosted an exclusive showcase, ‘Hitachi x LKCNHM: Advancing STEM Education in Singapore’, in collaboration with Hitachi Asia, Hitachi High-Tech Singapore, and Hitachi High-Tech America! As part of Hitachi’s Inspire STEM Education Outreach Programme, this event marked the introduction of a series of biodiversity programmes which will reach out to educators, students and the wider public. 

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).

(From left to right) Speakers at the event: Ms Lim Shu Min (Representative from SISTRUM), Assoc Prof Darren Yeo (Head of LKCNHM), Mr Hidehiro Yamada (Managing Director of Hitachi High-Tech (Malaysia)). Photo credit: LKCNHM

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!

One of the Museum’s Education Officers using the TM4000Plus II. Photo credit: LKCNHM

Scales on a butterfly wing as seen by the TM4000Plus II. Photo credit: 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.

A fusion of art, science and technology 

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. 

An image taken from ‘Filtering Microworlds’ (2024), a video featured in the ‘Nature Remixed’ exhibition that reimagines the world of sponges, using the SEM, machine learning and a hypnotic sound score. Photo credit: SISTRUM

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”. 

A participant experiencing a LIVE first-hand demonstration of the TM4000Plus II. Photo credit: LKCNHM

‘Nature Remixed’ poster and a generated image of a ‘specimen’ using AI featured in the exhibition. Photo credit: SISTRUM 

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. 

A participant experiencing a LIVE first-hand demonstration of the TM4000Plus II. Photo credit: LKCNHM

 

Sample specimens for examination using the TM4000Plus II. Very little specimen preparation is required when using this SEM, making it highly accessible and user-friendly. Photo credit: LKCNHM

 

Attendees viewing the ‘Nature Remixed’ exhibition, which showcases a series of thought-provoking installations that defy taxonomic norms, celebrating hybridity and mutation. Photo credit: LKCNHM

 

Attendees exploring the original artworks used as data for machine learning during the exclusive first look at the ‘Nature Remixed’ exhibition. These books, containing natural history illustrations from the 19th century, are on loan from the National University of Singapore Libraries and are on display at the exhibition. Photo credit: LKCNHM

 

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!  

A group shot of staff from both LKCNHM and Hitachi. Photo credit: LKCNHM

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)!