RESEARCHER Dr Hubert Pollock sees strange landscapes onthe monitor of his laboratory in the depths of LancasterUniversity.

But the rolling hills and layered plains that appear onthe screen are not pictures of some distant land - but are produced by arevolutionary microscope.

Dr Pollock - who lives near Barbon - hashelped to invent a micro-thermal analyser that can actually look throughobjects and examine their make-up.

It can pinpoint an area of just athousandth of a millimetre across and uses thermal waves to build up apicture of the object's interior.

Dr Pollock - who has been withLancaster University for 33 years - added: "You do get some beautifulpictures. Human skin just looks like layers of flaky material."

Nowthe analyser - which has already looked at the make-up of space shuttletiles and could be used in the development of microwaveable cling film -has been nominated for a millennium award.

And the invention - whichwas also worked on by scientists at Loughborough University - has beenshortlisted for a place in the Millennium Dome at Greenwich.

Cambridge-educated Dr Pollock, 63, said: "I have always wondered what thedome would be used for and the analyser seems a pretty good place forit.

"I am very pleased with the invention, but it is not the finalversion. There are all sorts of developments in the pipeline."

Theteam behind the invention now wants to create an instrument that canmeasure the different wave lengths present in a beam of light.

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