Paula Cleggett-Haleim

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

February 8, 1993
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Jim Sahli/Dave Drachlis

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 205/544-0034)

RELEASE: 93-024

ASTROPHYSICIST NAMED 1992 NASA INVENTOR OF THE YEAR

A NASA astrophysicist whose work in developing x-ray

telescopes led to his invention of a revolutionary new microscope,
has been named NASA Inventor of the Year for 1992.

Richard B. Hoover of the Marshall Space Flight Center,

Huntsville, Ala., was selected for his invention of the
Water-Window Imaging x-ray Microscope. This instrument should
enable researchers to see in great detail high contrast x-ray
images of proteins, chromosomes and other tiny carbon structures
inside living cells. Resolution of the microscope could be so
high that it may produce detailed images of the building blocks of
life -- tiny DNA molecules.

"I believe the microscope has immense potential in many

biological and medical research areas," Hoover said. These
include genetic and gerontology research; gene splicing and
genetic engineering; cancer research and early tumor cell
diagnostic imaging; AIDS research including analysis of the viral
structure of HIV and assessment of real time interactions of
influencing drugs and antibodies; and chemical drug analysis.

The device uses x-rays instead of visible light to create

ultra-high resolution, high-contrast images.

Will See Things Never Seen Before

The Microscope got its "water-window" name because it is

designed to operate in a narrow band of the x-ray part of the
electromagnetic spectrum at which water transmits or passes x-rays
and appears transparent, and carbon absorbs x-rays and becomes
opaque. In this "window" between 23.3 and 43.7 angstroms, the
microscope can produce detailed images of the important carbon
structures inside a living cell, which is made up primarily of
water.

- more -
- 2 -
 Above this "window," carbon becomes more transparent to
x-rays so carbon structures will not show up. Below the "window,"
water absorbs x-rays and becomes opaque, obscuring the carbon
structures inside the cell.

"This instrument essentially will allow us to see through

the water and into the living cell with very high resolution and
high contrast, without using dyes or stains which produce
limitations," explained Hoover. "When development is complete and
cell biologists begin using the microscope, it is possible that
they will begin seeing things they have never seen before."

The advance in capability provided by the microscope may be

as great as the difference between a doctor looking at a
conventional photograph and a doctor looking at an x-ray picture
of the human body, according to Hoover.

Hoover is a member of the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Division

of the Marshall Center's Space Science Laboratory. A veteran of
27 years with the center, his primary research has been devoted to
development of advanced x-ray imaging systems. He has contributed
significantly to improved technologies for x-ray optics.

Most recently, he was instrumental in the development of a

new kind of solar x-ray telescope. Launched aboard sounding
rockets in 1987 and 1991, the solar x-ray telescopes have produced
some of the highest resolution x-ray images ever taken of the sun.
Hoover found that the new optics technologies developed for this
x-ray telescope could be applied to the development of a high
resolution x-ray microscope.

In addition to his work at NASA, Hoover has devoted time to

research in other disciplines. He is an internationally
recognized authority on photomicroscopy and the micropaleontology
of diatoms (a microscopic single-cell algae).

He graduated with honors from Henderson State University in

Arkadelphia, Ark., in 1964 with a bachelor of science degree in
physics and mathematics. He was a physics instructor at the
University of Arkansas from 1965 to 1966 and later studied optics
at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University
of Alabama in Huntsville. He is married to the former Miriam
Jackson.

Hoover was selected to receive the Inventor of the Year

Award by NASA's General Counsel Office, Headquarters, Washington,
D.C.

- end -

EDITOR'S NOTE: Photos and a video news release of Richard B.

Hoover and the Water-Window Imaging X-Ray Microscope are available
from the Marshall Space Flight Center Newsroom by calling
205/544-0034.