In the past decade, the computer technology of image processing and analysis has increased in sophistication, become accessible to scientists working with microcomputers, and dropped in price. A system generally includes a computer with a graphics card or special circuit board, called a "frame grabber," that digitizes images that are entered from a scanner, a VCR, or a microscope equipped with a camera. As a result of the boom in microcomputer-based systems, more and more researchers in fields as diverse as geology and microbiology are beginning to rely on image processing.
Postdoc Marina Volkov is a perfect example. Her work in the neuroendocrinology lab of Joe McCabe at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., involves in situ hybridization. This is a method for radioactively tagging messenger RNA specific to certain molecules in individual cells within a slice of brain tissue. In order to determine the ...
