Two of Hitachi's TM-1000 tabletop microscopes were on display as part of the Natural History Museum's contribution to a special science exhibition held at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 2006
More than 800 GCSE and A-level students and their teachers from across the country visited the Palace to watch a 'Punk Science' show and view an exhibition demonstrating areas of current scientific research.
The event was designed to acknowledge the importance of British science in national life.
On the same day, Queen Elizabeth opened the Smith Centre at the Science Museum.
The TM-1000s were in use all day, and were chosen for their ease of use, ability to image a wide range of different materials without any special sample preparation and their excellent imaging quality.
Their ease of use allowed the teenagers to obtain images for themselves, with samples such as red blood cells, feathers, split ends from hair, wasps and bees being particularly popular since they could easily be related to the 'real world'.
Twenty different exhibits were organised with support from the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Research Councils UK and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
These included 'Mars in their eyes' 'How to Build a Human', 'Parasites and Lions in London', 'So you think you could design an aeroengine?!' and Superhuman Vision: Seeing with Terahertz'.
In the evening, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh hosted a reception for 500 members of the British scientific community including Professor Stephen Hawking, and the microscopes were also on display for this.
