I’d like to give you a quick evaluation of some online virtual microscopes and microscope simulations that I found. Write a comment, if I overlooked something and if you have further recommendations. Online Digital Microscope This virtual microscope allows the user to choose from a variety of plant, animal and microbe specimens. It is not [...]

Why is refractive index of mounting media important? The refractive index is important for several reasons. First, it influences the resolution of the image. Second, if the refractive index of the specimen is too similar to the refractive index of the mounting medium, then it may be difficult to see the specimen if it is [...]

In this post, I’m pondering about amateur microscopy and astronomy. There is an evident imbalance and I wonder why.

Over the past few years, I’ve met several students who wanted to see bacteria through the microscopes that we have at school. Unfortunately, these devices are not equipped with phase contrast optics. The transparent bacteria are therefore difficult (but not impossible) to see. The biggest draw-back, however, comes from a different source: some of the [...]

The video shows the crystallization of Vitamin C (dissolved in water) in time lapse, under crossed polarizing filters. Some technical information: The frames in the video were taken with a time interval of 2 sec. The colors were not adjusted at all. No contrast enhancement, no levels were corrected, no white balance. The pictures were [...]

Our Biology curriculum in school requires students to be able to calculate the size of cells and other structures from light micrographs, which have a scale bar. It’s probably more interesting for students to actually take the light micrographs themselves. It is not difficult to determine the size of cells and other structures in light [...]

The statistics feature of my blogging software allows me to see what readers are searching for, and one of the questions that keeps reappearing over and over again is the question on how to prevent air bubbles in wet mounts. I have already published a video on how to correctly make a wet mount (temporary [...]

Why use phosphate buffer when making a permanent slide of cheek cells? Assuming, that the buffer refers to phosphate buffered saline, the advantages are that the pH is stable and that the solution is isotonic to the cells. The cells, therefore, do not change shape. The solution is used to make dilutions of the cells [...]