The Yin and Yang of Microscopy

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linuxusr
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The Yin and Yang of Microscopy

#1 Post by linuxusr » Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:54 pm

Hello All:

In Oliver Kim’s video on choosing a microscope, he says that the best microscope is the one that is used.

I ponder this sometimes because I spend more time reading about microscopy and specimens than I do looking through my microscope!

I think I’ve achieved a satisfactory resolution to this paradox.

Suppose this scenario:

I am working on a beginners’ lab, the cheek cell. I take photos at 100x – 1000x TM and make various mental observations. What I know is very limited: It’s a eukaryotic cell with a nucleus.

This is where many tutorials end. I am nagged and ask, Is that all? Or even, So what?
I then power off my scope, put on the dust cover, and return to my desk. To illustrate with three examples, I discover that:

1. If I had prepared a wm (wet mount) with a 0.9% solution of NaCl, that I could have maintained an isotonic solution that would have prevented cells from bursting,
2. What I am looking at is an example of mucosal squamous epitheliel tissue and that cells that are part of the tissue organ come under the study of histology,
3. Rather than being static objects, as they appear, that cells are a part of a dynamic system. For example, how does a SARS-CoV-2 virion find proximity to an epithelial cell if the former has no means of motility? It does it by Brownian motion and from within the intercellular matrix!

So, when I am at my desk, discovering, am I doing microscopy? Yes! And that is because when I return to my microscope I will do so with a better procedure and a deeper understanding.

That is the yin and yang of microscopy!
Nikon AlphaPhot 2 < Zeiss Primostar 3, Full Köhler; Axiocam 208 Color < UHD LG
Aller Anfang ist schwer.

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