Outside, it’s a brick building that would not garner a second glance from passing commuters on nearby Route 83 in Westmont. But every day within its walls, baffling mysteries, some of which deal with headline-grabbing issues, are investigated in the laboratories of McCrone Associates.
In these mysteries, the detectives are scientists, their tools are the most powerful microscopes in the world, and the realm within which they work is undetectable to the human eye–or even to the microscopes available in most labs.
“We can determine things that nobody else knows,” said Donald A. Brooks, president and CEO of McCrone Associates. “We can analyze any material you can think of at a minute level. We have the capability to solve the hard problems.”
That capability boils down to the considerable abilities of the 45-member staff at the McCrone lab and to the use of microscopes ranging from small desktop units to a computerized transmission electron microscope that takes up an entire room and can magnify an object up to more than one million times.
With such state-of-the-art equipment, McCrone is often the first choice across the globe for investigative work. One such case involves the Shroud of Turin. The ancient 14-foot strip of linen found in a French church in the mid-1350s was professed to bear the shadowy image of a crucified Jesus Christ. Walter C. McCrone, the founder of the 41-year-old company, was involved in the scientific study of the cloth, along with an international team of scientists. In 1980, McCrone was the first, and only, researcher to state that the shroud was a “fantastic work of art,” but not a cloth that could have covered the body of Christ in biblical times.
Using several microscopes and their ability to analyze chemical elements, McCrone and his team of microscopists concluded that red ocher and vermilion, common 14th Century paint pigments, were present on the cloth. Independent carbon testing performed in 1988 has dated the linen itself to be from around 1325, plus or minus 65 years.
But in spite of McCrone’s statements and the scientific data from numerous tests, the controversy continues, particularly among religious groups that revere the shroud as a holy icon. The experience has inspired McCrone to write a book on the subject, titled “Judgment Day for the Turin Shroud,” which was released this spring.
One of the advantages of “thinking small” (an early McCrone motto, Brooks said) is that microscopic samples can be taken from precious items such as the Shroud of Turin or a Manet painting without causing any damage.
Many such samples are so minute that they need to be prepared for study in a special clean room at McCrone. Clean in this room means that all but 10 particles per square foot of air are eliminated, necessary because even one floating speck of dust could completely blot out a specimen, said Richard Bisbing, a McCrone forensic scientist.
Bisbing estimates that normal air contains “probably tens of thousands” of particles per square foot. “We all carry particles with us, very much like Pigpen in the `Peanuts’ comic strip,” he said. These largely invisible particles can include hair, skin, clothing fibers, dust from a sidewalk and pollen. To control particles, scientists in the clean room wear rubber gloves, blue slippers, plastic caps and white coveralls. The ceiling features hard-working filters. The floor has grates through which dust is sucked out.
A tour through the rest of the McCrone Associates building reveals offices that contain at least two microscopes each. “We use microscopes as often as other people use pens and pencils,” Bisbing said.
The smaller the sample to be examined, the larger the microscope needs to be and the less it resembles a traditional biology-class microscope. Instead of a light bulb to illuminate a specimen, an electron beam is used. Also, there’s no eyepiece; all of the images are relayed to a video screen. When dealing with objects that small, even sound vibrations can throw a specimen out of whack, so the walls of the room that contains the transmission electron microscope, affectionately referred to as the rubber room, are covered with black sound-absorbing foam panels.
Unlike most labs, which focus on one specialized facet of microscopy, McCrone Associates has the ability to study just about any material. As a result, they have attracted a variety of interesting clients.
Oprah Winfrey has enlisted the lab for scientific information to supplement two of her television programs. In one, Winfrey asked scientists to discern whether there really is a chemical difference between high-priced cosmetics and drug store brands. (The result: not much.) For a program focused on the microscopic world existing in an average viewer’s home, McCrone scientists provided pictures of dust mites that live in sheets and bacteria that thrive on toothbrushes.
Bisbing occasionally has found himself in the limelight while investigating, and testifying on, a number of criminal and civil lawsuits.
Most of his forensics research involves studying trace samples of fabric, paint and hair (human and animal) left at crime scenes to help provide answers. Bisbing bases his work on a theory called the Locard Exchange Principal (after French microscopist Edmond Locard), which states that when two things come in contact, they will transfer materials to each other.
“For example, when O.J. leaves the murder scene, the blood on his hand will transfer to the gate,” Bisbing said with a smile. (For the record, McCrone Associates was not involved in the O.J. Simpson case, although Bisbing is acquainted with several of the scientists who were.)
One of Bisbing’s more prominent local cases, Orlando vs. CTA, from September 1993, involved a Chicago Transit Authority bus that struck a car. Conflicting details of the accident and how it occurred led the plaintiff’s attorneys to enlist Bisbing to analyze the paint job on the front of the CTA bus. Not only did his detective work provide more information on the logistics of the accident but it also revealed that someone from the CTA had attempted to paint over crucial evidence.
“We don’t have to take sides. The outcome makes no difference,” said Bisbing, who testifies in court an average of once a month for prosecutors and defense attorneys. In fact, most of the time, the forensics scientists at McCrone simply uncover crucial information, unaware of how it will be used. “Often, we don’t even know if our client is in litigation,” Bisbing said.
There are thousands of other projects. Brooks estimates the firm takes on 150 to 200 new projects each month that, although important, wouldn’t qualify as fodder for front-page news. In fact, most of these scientific inquiries are conducted quietly for companies that have a problem and need some answers.
“For example, we once had a pharmaceutical company that wanted us to find out why their blue pills had yellow dots,” said Bonnie Betty, vice president and director of operations. “But they wouldn’t want the public to know there’s a problem. We maintain complete confidentiality.”
In a typical industry project, food processors might need to identify the source of corrosion in cans used for their products. McCrone scientists have also come to the aid of ailing workers in “sick buildings” by collecting and studying air samples.
The United States government is also a frequent client of McCrone Associates.
“One of the early projects was an Apollo mission,” Brooks said. “The astronauts’ breathing apparatus was clogged, and it was three days before the launch. We worked on the problem the whole weekend and discovered a reaction between the rubber and the coolant.” Ultimately, the launch went off as scheduled.
Surprisingly, the unseen world observed by scientists can also possess a unique beauty. Who knew, for example, that something like photographic developer crystallized in a gelatin emulsion could, on a microscopic level, look like a flying dove? Or that magnified cocaine hydrochloride, corrosion on brass and zinc crystal on galvanized iron could be photographed, enlarged, framed and hung on the wall as works of art?
Called photomicrographs, these colorful depictions of the microscopic are, indeed, not only mounted and displayed prominently on the walls at McCrone Associates but are also enthusiastically purchased by members of the general public.
The McCrone Group, under which the McCrone Associates laboratory operates, also has an instruments division, McCrone Accessories, which markets microscopes, supplies and reference books. The McCrone Research Institute is a non-profit affiliate in Chicago where McCrone remains active, teaching microscopy and materials analysis.
Although the founder is now in his 70s, Brooks maintains that McCrone is extremely dedicated to his company. “His passion, his hobby, and profession is microscopy,” Brooks said.
