Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy and Biology

Although most of the recent work concerning EELS in electron microscopy is related to instrumental developments, there are a number of papers relating to biological applications. The aim of this paper is to attempt to present in a pedagogical manner the subject of EELS and biology. The biologist will be taught about EELS and the physicist about the possible biological applications of this technique. The paper thus consists of: 1) a presentation of a minimum background on EELS required for biologists to realize what its potential is; 2) a description of why EELS is a useful tool in biology; 3) a description of which kind of biological problems may be resolved through EELS; 4) finally a survey relating to the problems encountered in applying EELS to biology, i.e., specimen preparation, beam damage and artefacts