Microscopy in times of corona virus crisis

[MicroBob]

Hi together,
here in Germany social activities have been reduced to zero, meetings and events forbidden, schools and kindergardens closed, limitations for restaurant visits. So we have a time before us where we have to make do with what we can do at home without personal meetings. This will be the case for quite a while, once around the globe.
I'm member of the managing team of the MIKRO Hamburg, a microscopy group established in 1911. Our main activity is to prepare 10 meetings with well prepared topics on a variety of subjects. For 2020 we have a great program planned right through - and then the bloody virus came

What we did is setting up an internal forum and an internal slide circuit for the members to keep the group busy and connected. So while the other microscopy groups in Germany are suspending their activities we just change the car and step on the gas. This has started very well and I'm Looking forward to our first decentral meeting next saturday. Since we are shipping samples etc. this is not open to a wider public, sorry.

Maybe some of you could be interested in working on a common topics, connected by forums like this. You could make an appointment and post in a common thread what preparations you do, what observations you make and eychange your opinions. This could be a lively distraction from the surrounding crisis and give a more optimistic outlook.

Coming saturday we will internally cover the topic "Fibres - natural and artificial". If you are interested we could start a thread on this topic n this forum too on saturday - someone interested? Fibres are quite an interesting and wide field.

Here an image of an isolating paper used in electric motor manufacturing. I have this sample since 1986 - never throw anything away!
It is impossible to tear this paper with normal hand force. The microphoto expains why!
Zeiss Epiplan HD 16:1 incident darkfield.

Bob

[MichaelG.]

An excellent initiative, Bob

MichaelG.

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Edit: There are some excellent S.E.M. images of Tyvek and similar materials available on the web
... including one in this document: https://www.dupont.co.uk/content/dam/du ... N_Cyto.pdf

[PeteM]

Hi Bob. I'd be delighted if you could start a "fibers" thread here. The only things we've done with our "Micronauts" - and I'm sure you already know about these:

- Down insulation vs. polyester (sleeping bags, jackets etc.). Immediately obvious micro-wise why down is better.

- Lint from a dryer with crossed polarizers. Amazing how many of the fibers are man-made and birefringement.

- The usual sets of 10 or so fibers slides.

- Various animal, human hairs

[MicroBob]

Hi Pete,
one of our new members cares for bats and wants to identify them by the hairs in their droppings so I had a look how to do hair slides. Apparently the refractive index of the medium is important for the image one gets: Make the outside visible or the inside.
What I thought of too: The birefringence of plastic fibres changes with stress. So it is probably possible to make this visible in a knot in a fine fishing line in polarized light.

I can open a post here and then we see whether the opportunity is used.

Bob

[MichaelG.]

Here’s something for your ‘thread’ Bob ...

Our Son is working in Laos, and he has a new companion:

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0126C27D-78C9-4FC7-A3B8-187B4F533468.jpeg (284.39 KiB) Viewed 4999 times

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35D9F929-4F88-45B6-B90C-60D12264C284.jpeg (317.22 KiB) Viewed 4999 times

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Here’s the Wikipedia page about the genus, Nephilia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila
Which shows a beautiful garment woven from the silk, and has has links to other pages of interest.

MichaelG.

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Update from son:
According to the locals they are "seb lai lai der" which means very very tasty.

[MicroBob]

Hi Michael,
wow, he's got a nice pet there! These spider webs are quite performant fibres when it comes to stress resistance in N/mm². I think in times of WW2 spider net fibres have been used as a replacement for the unavailable silk.

Bob