Braingle: 'Microscope Matt - I' Brain Teaser

Microscope Matt - I

Science brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.

Puzzle ID:	#32842
Fun:	(2.77)
Difficulty:	(1.9)
Category:	Science
Submitted By:	MattM462
Corrected By:	boodler

Microscope Matt is an employee for a top-notch science company.

Today, he had signed up to use the big scanning electron microscope for the first time. He had received so much training and taken many classes to be privileged to use this machine.

He had prepared a sample of an ant to be examined. Matt put the ant on the plate, and activated the machine. He took a look at the monitor, and saw a red fire ant, in the process eating what appeared to be a plant leaf - exactly what he had prepared.

Matt was positive that someone was pulling a prank on him. He checked the cables from the monitor and, sure enough, they didn't connect to the microscope.

How did Microscope Matt know he was being tricked?

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Comments

ruroken Sep 04, 2006	I had a different answer, but it was still a good teaser!
MattM462 Sep 04, 2006	Just curious, what was your answer?
ruroken Sep 04, 2006	Well, electron scanning microscopes have to have the specimen it's examining in a vacuum because the electrons will bounce off of anything, including air. So electron scanning microscopes can't be used to study live specimens. Or am I confusing it with something else?
scallio Sep 05, 2006	I didn't find this to be a very interesting teaser, but I have to admit I am not a fan of biology!
MattM462 Sep 05, 2006	I never said the ant was alive... Just wait for Microscope Matt - II
jazzmusician46 Sep 05, 2006	I haven't got a scientific bone in my body, but I love reading these science teasers. Thanks.
soccerfreak Sep 05, 2006	clever
ruroken Sep 05, 2006	Thanks Matt!
Pizzazz2u Sep 06, 2006	I had always thought your image would be unrecognizable, if you used the microscope mentioned. Besides, your mention of lack of color, too. Still, a good one to get your mind wondering about the answer.
MMSMustang Sep 17, 2006	ruroken was right! you sadi it was in the PROCESS of eating and non-living things do not eat so technaclly, ruroken was right
MattM462 Sep 21, 2006	I meant that he had a leaf halfway in his mouth... The ant wasn't moving...
Herman Sep 28, 2006	Gimme a break, you've got to be kidding me!! First of all, changing your problem: in the process. Secondly, why the heck would someone use an electron microscope to look at an ant. Electron microscopes blow up images a ton, way too much to even see an ant eating a leaf, whether the ant be alive or dead. Comon Dumb.
Herman Sep 28, 2006	Gimme a break, you've got to be kidding me!! First of all, changing your problem: in the process. Secondly, why the heck would someone use an electron microscope to look at an ant. Electron microscopes blow up images a ton, way too much to even see an ant eating a leaf, whether the ant be alive or dead. Comon Dumb.
marschie Oct 12, 2006	The ant would be unrecognizable since an electron microscope magnifies so much that cells themselves might be unrecognizable. You would be able to see the hairs on the ant's legs filling up the field. Poor answer, poor teaser.
MattM462 Oct 13, 2006	My science book showed a picture of an ant holding a microchip...
eamon Oct 19, 2006	Back to the drawing board.
shdwhawk Oct 31, 2006	Duh, electon microscopes are use to see CELLS, how is it possible to see the image of the ant of leaf?
(user deleted) Jan 14, 2007	I have actually used an Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and I can tell you that you can use it to look at anything that a light microscope can see. The only difference is that you can blow things up to an incredible magnification, but you don't have too. If you only want to blow it up to say 250x instead of 250 000x, then you can. And here is a picture of an ant using an SEM for those that would argue with me just for the sake of argument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ant_SEM.jpg I do agree that my answer was not as a result of the colour of the image, but the fact it was eating. Anything being viewed on the SEM will be dead due to it being in a vacuum. The colour was a misrepresentation because I just assumed you were stating the type of ant, not the fact that you could see it was red.
vikingboy Jan 20, 2007	yep, I'm with dropzone. Since you stated that you knew what you were supposed to be looking at, you would have known that it was a red fire ant.
reptile5000 Jun 01, 2007	DropZone, your link does not connect (at least not anymore)
CatsAreCute Jan 17, 2008	How would he be able to tell that the ant was eating?! With an electron microscope!!
MattM462 Jan 17, 2008	Thanks, dropzone.
bradon182001 Dec 19, 2010	Well done teaser. Thanks for posting.