Scanning Electron Microscopy and amber

Kachin Amber is one of the best mediums for the fossilization of very delicate organisms. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in backscattered electron mode (SEM-BSE)and low temperature SEM (LTSEM) enables us to view extreme details not revealed with other technologies. SEM in secondary electron mode (SEM-SE) also reveals a microbiota trapped in gas bubbles. The Birbal Sahni institute of paleosciences in Lucknow India pioneered the techniques of extracting inclusions for SEM analyis. Plant pollen was chosen as it provides a new and novel way of dating amber specimens by studying the pollens trapped in the amber. Solvents have been developed to test ambers and to dissolve ambers to expose delicate inclusions that are recovered during filtration, these delicate inclusions are then nanocoated to protect them from breaking during the SEM process. This technique has now been adopted by numerous institutes around the World many of them researching ambers donated by AAKZ.

Researching ambers does not have to be expensive and throughout this website there are numerous tips and pieces of advice that are useful to collectors and scientists alike. Many simple cheap solutions can be implemented without sacrificing quality, if there is a research aspect that we have not answered then please feel free to let us know and we shall endeavor to help whenever possible, if you have any interesting solutions that you would like to share with is then of course we are always glad to hear from you too.