Chief Scientist Alan Finkel opened the International Microscopy Congress in Sydney yesterday. It was the standard Finkel speech, as charming as it was erudite and flattering the audience outrageously, telling them that, “without microscopy there is no modern science. End of story.” And he assured them that microscope-wise Australian science is ticking over just fine.

A point made today by the University of Sydney which will launch its new Thermo Fisher Themis-Z transmission electron microscope which apparently does big things on an atomic-structure scale. New NSW chief scientist Hugh Durant Whyte and two Nobel laureates, in Sydney for the microscopy conference Joachim Frank, (Columbia U) and Dan Shectman (Technion U in Israel) will do the honours.