OpenSPIM wiki

"The Idea OpenSPIM is an Open Access platform for applying and enhancing Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM). We hope that OpenSPIM in its radical openness will demonstrate that the benefits brought to science by the Open Source approach apply equally well to hardware.    

SPIM principle: The SPIM technology offers fast, optically-sectioning, minimally-invasive 3D acquisition of fluorescing specimen over time. It achieves that by focusing a thin laser light-sheet into the specimen, taking two-dimensional images of the illuminated slice with a perpendicularly positioned detector (CCD camera). Three-dimensional stacks are obtained by moving the specimen orthogonal to the light-sheet between consecutive images. By mounting the sample in a rigid medium, e.g. agarose, and hanging it into the sample chamber in front of the detection lens, it is possible to rotate the sample and collect 3d stacks from multiple angles (views)...."