Diamond knife for ultramicrotomy
Cuchilla de diamante para ultramicrotomía
- Date
- c. 1955 · confidence medium
- Place
- Caracas, Capital District, Venezuela
- Credited to
- Humberto Fernández-Morán
- People
- 👤 Humberto Fernández Morán1924–1999
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A diamond knife able to cut tissue sections a few tens of nanometres thick for the electron microscope. It made it possible to see the ultrastructure of nerves and cells.
Fernández-Morán began developing it in Stockholm around 1951 and perfected it in Venezuela, where he founded the IVNIC; the exact place and year vary by source.
What it led to
- biological electron microscopy
- the study of the myelin sheath and mitochondria