A few days ago I ordered a microtome. Here is a video showing you the different parts: Now it’s time to test the device. The first sample is a carrot. It can be cut into the right shape to fit into the specimen holder of the microtome and it is sufficiently solid to allow for [...]

Euparal is a semi-synthetic mounting medium used in microscopy. It is slightly yellowish in color, flows well and cures after a few days. After curing, it becomes very hard but not brittle, keeping elasticity. Euparal also adheres strongly to glass. It has a refractive index of 1.5174. Compared to other mounting media, Euparal has a [...]

Here I’m unpacking my new hand microtome and explaining the different parts. A hand microtome (or cylinder microtome) is a device used to make thin cuts of a specimen for microscopic observations. The video briefly illustrates the different parts of a hand microtome.

This post explains how to make a wet mount. Video included!

Before specimens can be processed for making permanent slides, they may need to be fixed. This step kills the specimen and preserves the structures. It also prepares the specimen for staining. There is no one single method to fix a specimen, too much depends on the nature of the specimen itself and on the subsequent [...]

The hemocytometer (or haemocytometer or counting chamber) is a specimen slide which is used to determine the concentration of cells in a liquid sample. It is frequently used to determine the concentration of blood cells (hence the name “hemo-”) but also the concentration of sperm cells in a sample.

The resolution that a microscope is capable of achieving is probably the single most important factor that determines the quality of a microscopic image. Without a sufficiently high resolution, magnification is not possible without loss of quality. There are a variety of different factors that determine the achievable resolution. Some of these factors can not be actively influenced by the microscopist, others can. Some of the factors play a larger role, others a smaller one. In the following post, I want to summarize some of these factors.

The thickness of the cover glass can have a significant impact on the resolution. The effect is highest with high-numeric aperture aperture (high magnification) objectives, and barely noticeable when using objectives of a low numeric aperture. Types of cover glasses Cover glasses come in all sorts of different sizes. I already wrote a post about [...]