MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi John, You are sure tempting me... Both of your latest pics are superb... BillT Go on Bill - just one tiny leaf.... they're so green and lovely...... my tip; Go get an onion, any onion will do, load up Walter D's onion examples and you're off! Cell, walls, nuclei, cytoplasmic-strands, plasmodesma...

A striking and interesting image - nicely done. Great colours & detail.

Hi John, I think your photos are VERY good!... It does seem that you were destined to have this precision microtome to help you make wonderful sections... You are somewhat pulling me towards the botanical studies away from the "wee critters"!... Bill, you really are very generous, thanks for your e...

YES!!... This is as fascinating as a "page turner" detective story.. I can't wait to see what happens next!... BillT Haha - thanks Bill - I'm excited too! I still can't believe how lucky I am to have this beautiful microtome - it's a dream to use. :D :D I'm down to 1 maybe 2 tissue blocks, 1 is a l...

Some early pictures of Tissue-Tek metal moulds on wooden mounts - with some pollen on the side. Here's the 'kit' ready for wax; ws_moulds_ready_to_fill.jpg The principle of the wooden-mounted (rather than cassette) Tissue-Tek style wax-blocks seems to have worked well; ws_blocks_cast_and_trimmed.jpg...

Your quest for 2 micron sections somehow feels like 'free diving' to me as I am an excited spectator of your quest, John B.! With the volume of your nifty wax moulds, and the average surface area of your pollen specimens...2 micron pollen sections sounds like statistics on collisions of molecules i...

Thank you so much for this lab journal complete with source text you highly aclaim! I need to be vigilant...with you doing all this technical but clearly understandible process...there is temptation to tag along at your lab...and not get my own fingers wet! thanks, charlie guevara Hi Charlie, great...

Hi all, I received my positively-charged super-sticky slides today, together with a set of mixed (used) Shandon embedding cassete (Tissue-Tek) system stainless-steel moulds. I've some cassettes coming from China - cheap and I'm in no rush! Meanwhile, I've cut some wooden-blocks the right size to put...

Hi John, I am blown away by your work here!... This is fantastic and very interesting... Looks like it would make a good paper for "Microbehunter" magazine to me!... BillT Thanks Bill, I've thought a lot about articles, it's just having the time to compile them.... Thanks for your kind words - I'm ...

Hi Charlie, yes the chemicals I use are all very affordable, Histoclear is about £8 per 250ml (goes a long way), Numount I think is about £6 for a 'small bottle' (see pictures below) as far as I can remember, as it's ages since I bought it - I'm still only about 20% through the bottle - it lasts a l...

Simply awesome! Beautiful images from the hands of a master - thanks for the stunning post!

Hey Charlie, what a great series - really interesting. Superb pictures too. I love a story of an investigation like this, they're always inspiring not to mention interesting. Super stomatal images, never knew about the anchorage fibers.... Graet on the eye too, lovely colourful & bright images. Plea...

Thank you for inviting all of us to your lab, Mr.Sonchus! charlie guevara Thanks Charlie, I'm having a lot of fun! :D To finally be able to concentrate on the Botany is very liberating, gradually each stage, right from the wildflower specimen spotted growing, to it's eventual study and preservation...

billbillt wrote:Hi John,
You are certainly on a roll now.. You have really made a lot of progress with this.. Your samples look very good to me... Keep us updated!...

BillT

Thanks Bill, I'm very pleased you're enjoying the adventure.

Hi all, I had a go at processing some of those 20-odd slides I 'cooked' yesterday..... They came up pretty well. Bearing in mind that ordinarily they wouldn't have finished drying & bonding to the slides for another 2-3 days to make a proper job of it. I thought I may just as well dewax some and hav...

Thanks Bill, so far so good - although I managed (still not sure how..) to 'cook' 20 slides at over 60 deg today in my drying-oven! :oops: The wax has obviously melted then re-set, I don't fancy the chances of the tissue they contain! :oops: Here are some that have been cooked, then they have appare...

Hi John, Please do keep us up to date on your progress with your wonderful new machine.. I am following with great interest!.... I also am curious about blade life here.. Be interesting to know how may slices per blade you get... Will do Bill, yes the first thing I would like to establish is blade-...

So..my wife comes into my lab and asks me what I am doing. I explain to her how the "guys" are trying to identify organisms found in Deer feces that have been mixed with water etc. She looks at me quietly for a moment than suggests we take a walk as it is her opinion I need to get out. LOL Hehe :D ...

Jim, where is it!

What fascinating pictures - if I had to guess I'd say plant-material, probably trichomes but something about their 'smoothness' of form gives a tiny-teeny thought but I'd still say trichomes. The spiral looks like undigested tracheid vascular-tissue, depends on the size of course, but looks a lot li...

Hi Mrsonchus, You make the use of a microtome look easy!.... I am glad you got it.. It seems to crank out a lot of specimens in a hurry!..... BillT Thanks Bill, that's very kind. I think the Shandon is the star of this video :) - all I have to do now is give it good blocks and turn it's handle! It'...

Hi Mrsonchus, After watching your video I have a small tip; rather than using your brush dry moisten it with the tip of your tongue then you can mold the tip to a point with your lips, this will give a finer point for more accurate work also the moisture will stick to the sections holding them (but...

Simply stunning pictures of the very highest quality! You are an absolute expert! Excellently done!
Third picture is amazing - almost gelatinous - so lifelike and detailed at the same time, masterful work.

Brilliant.

Now then here's a very quickly edited piece of video from a practice-session this afternoon with my new Shandon ('Finesse' 0325) rotary microtome. These are from a couple of blocks containing specimens that I've had for quite a while now, waiting for a time when I had a good chance of sectioning the...

Hi all, I've taken some video this evening of the Shandon in action - should be able to have it in the forum tomorrow hopefully. Now for the unsettling news of this post's subect, I contacted the fellow that sold me this excellent piece of kit as he has all manner of microscope items, brace yourselv...

Charlie G, I'm so pleased, thank you so much for your kind encouragement!
Your slides look very, very nice - hmmm. Fancy putting a few up on this forum - I won't be the only one who'd love to see how it's really done! They look superb - I'd be proud of that set if I were you!

Thank you einman - I'm very lucky.

Can't wait to see some sections :) Me too Jim - ASAP, even if it's got to be from a few older blocks, soon have some cut and processed! Should be 3-4 days time! :D Oh - I've a few hurried pictures of the first sections I cut with it, about 1/2 hr after it arrived, these tiny leaf & stem sections ar...

Simply superb images! Have you seen this site - http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/Choices/Cha ... m_key.html

It looks good?

A couple more pictures, showing the blades used - £95 per packet of 50, and from what I've seen that many would probably last me about, hmm, 2-5 years... I've already cut over 300 sections, many at the 'roughing' setting, for practice, and have looked at the blade's edge at x40 to see how it's going...