Greetings from a bored ex-biologist

[WhatTheCell]

Hi Everyone! I'm looking forward to learning lots from this amazing forum (I have learned a lot already as a browser!). I'm a former cell biologist who did quite a bit of fluorescence microscopy (I used a wonderful Leica line scanning confocal at my last job). Now I'm a hematology tech in a medical lab and while I'm happy I have a well-paid stable job, I am so, so bored (and simultaneously extremely stressed) at work.

I wanted to have some actual fun with microscopy again, so I bought a used microscope on ebay for use at home, LOL. It's a Zeiss standard (probably a 14, the least exciting kind) and it works, despite not being correctly packaged for shipping (of course). The only seized up parts were the condenser centering screws, and they've now been cleaned and regreased, and I managed to set Koehler

After viewing Oliver's videos on different filters, my next goal is to find a subcondenser filter holder and try some DIY darkfield or oblique illumination with pond creatures/algae (or whatever I can find). I have a two year old daughter, and I'm looking forward to messing around with her. I think her responsibility will be collecting samples and I will operate the scope for now! At the moment I am just having some fun with my old histology slides (actually a friend's slides, until my parents send mine back from home) from technical college, and I'm waiting on a cell phone adapter so that I can take pictures to share, especially with my Dad, who is a fellow microscopy dork.

I also discovered that I've always been spoiled at work with plan objectives, so in the future I will probably upgrade some of my objective lenses as well. Spherical aberration is no joke

[Dubious]

Congratulations on getting into "real time" microscopy! Since you're trying to interest your young daughter, you might also consider, as an adjunct to the Zeiss, an inexpensive low-powered stereo microscope, either one with eyepieces or maybe better considering her age one with an LCD view screen. Stereo microscopes are great for looking at bugs, which usually fascinate small children, and I've found that some small children have trouble adjusting their eyes to binocular eyepieces.

Darkfield works quite well for pond critters. I've never had a Zeiss standard so can't give specific advice for it. However, I will note that while darkfield usually works best with a darkfield condenser, experimentation pays off and I've gotten very good results with ad hoc darkfield stops positioned close to the condenser's diaphragm (the filter holder may not be close enough). With a Leitz Laborlux, I got good results pushing a stop from a collection I bought on Ebay (there is someone there selling darkfield stops of all common mm sizes) up inside the hollow condenser core and using a rolled strip of black plastic with outward flex to hold it in place.

Happy hunting!

[BramHuntingNematodes]

Welcome to the forum! I may consult with you on feasible amateur fluorescence someday.

Field curvature correction, which I believe is treated separately from spherical aberration in lens design, is certainly very important in hematology. It is much less important when chasing down the thrashing nematode or trying to identify the minute acari causing problems for your poultry. I say this because you might find some lenses that better handle spherical aberration yet are not corrected for field curvature for very attractive prices.

[WhatTheCell]

I've gotten very good results with ad hoc darkfield stops positioned close to the condenser's diaphragm (the filter holder may not be close enough)

Thank you for this tip, I'll try it first! And thanks for the warm welcome!
Emily

[WhatTheCell]

Welcome to the forum! I may consult with you on feasible amateur fluorescence someday.

Field curvature correction, which I believe is treated separately from spherical aberration in lens design, is certainly very important in hematology. It is much less important when chasing down the thrashing nematode or trying to identify the minute acari causing problems for your poultry. I say this because you might find some lenses that better handle spherical aberration yet are not corrected for field curvature for very attractive prices.

Thanks for the advice on objectives and the mini-lesson on optics. Although I use microscopes everyday at work, I never had much opportunity to mess around with them, so I think I will actually learn much more about microscopy and optics now as an amateur!

Re: amateur fluorescence microscopy, while I can give advice on stains to visualize certain intracellular structures (and for example what wavelengths of dyes can be differentiated in the same sample without bleeding into each other) I know very little about the availability of those stains to amateurs and the availability and setup of lamps, filter cubes etc. I noticed one user in the "Videos and Images" forum who works quite a bit with fluorescence and I was very impressed with their setup and images. I think the user name is Chrisimbee or something similar. They use a lot of acridine orange and had a nice post on giant chromosomes. I would ask him/her/them instead!!

Emily

[Hobbyst46]

Hello and welcome,

For young children, I would suggest a convenient desk 2x/4x magnifier. For children 5-6 years old and up, a stereo microscope. IMHO, the compound microscope is best exploited with somewhat older children, say age 8 and up.

My own attempts to achieve decent dark field with circular stops under the condenser of a Zeiss Standard have failed. I read somewhere that they do not fit. I might be wrong though.

there are two better alternatives.
One is a phase contrast condenser, Zeiss Cat no. 465277, or equivalent; the Ph3 phase position provides decent DF for the 6.3x, 10x and 16x objectives.
That specific condenser model also has a dedicated "D" - DF position, that when oiled to the slide bottom, yields very good DF with the 10x-40x (dry) objectives.
Another, sometimes much cheaper option, is a DIY "slide edge illuminator". It provides decent oblique-DF illumination with at least the 10x-25x objectives.
Has been shown in a previous post, around 2 years ago.

Fluorescence on a Zeiss Standard - there are epi- illuminator attachments for the larger models, Photomicroscopes and Universal, but I am not sure about the standard; or if it can accommodate an objective turret or just one objective, similar to the ordinary reflected light epi-illuminator.

Astonishingly perhaps, an ancient Zeiss Standard that operates smoothly (mechanically) can be the same fun as your Leica confocal motorized computerized laserized microscope, IMHO. Much of the fun is the choice, collection, and preparation of specimens and illumination, and photography.

[Leitzcycler]

You are warmly wellcome! The following is what cought my attention

I am so, so bored (and simultaneously extremely stressed) at work.

May I ask if this is because you made interesting research earlier but now have to do some routine work without a deep interest and passion? Is this also the thing that causes the stress?

I'm a former cell biologist

I am so sad reading things like that. I assume you would very much like to continue research, however it is not possible? I certainly share your feelings and this sounds too familiar situation. I have same kind of experiences, however managed to resolve this problem at least partly myself.

Where are you located?

[WhatTheCell]

My own attempts to achieve decent dark field with circular stops under the condenser of a Zeiss Standard have failed. I read somewhere that they do not fit. I might be wrong though.

there are two better alternatives.
One is a phase contrast condenser, Zeiss Cat no. 465277, or equivalent; the Ph3 phase position provides decent DF for the 6.3x, 10x and 16x objectives.
That specific condenser model also has a dedicated "D" - DF position, that when oiled to the slide bottom, yields very good DF with the 10x-40x (dry) objectives.
Another, sometimes much cheaper option, is a DIY "slide edge illuminator". It provides decent oblique-DF illumination with at least the 10x-25x objectives.
Has been shown in a previous post, around 2 years ago.

Thanks for sharing your experience and suggestions! I will post an update once I have time to give some of the DIY options a try. Many people have posted really great suggestions so I'll probably work through them one by one and if all else fails I'm not opposed to trying out a phase contrast condenser/objective. I had the chance to do some phase contrast microscopy in high school (it was not well explained and we were all confused about what rings our teacher was talking about). I also had to sit through an incomprehensible lecture about phase contrast in technical college (it was clear our teacher did not understand it either!) but YouTube and this forum have been a much bigger help

Emily

[WhatTheCell]

You are warmly wellcome! The following is what cought my attention

I am so, so bored (and simultaneously extremely stressed) at work.

May I ask if this is because you made interesting research earlier but now have to do some routine work without a deep interest and passion? Is this also the thing that causes the stress?

Yes, the work is repetitive but the stress comes from the massive workload and responsibility for our patients. Our job is to make sure our test results are valid (and not affected by artifact or interferences) but also to weed out anything normal or unchanged and pass on to our pathologists any cases that need further attention. If we miss something, it could have very serious consequences and I find this very stressful. People are not super into innovation and change (you should have seen the reactions when one of our scopes had the light source changed to LED...although I think most people have come around to it now!)

I'm a former cell biologist

I am so sad reading things like that. I assume you would very much like to continue research, however it is not possible? I certainly share your feelings and this sounds too familiar situation. I have same kind of experiences, however managed to resolve this problem at least partly myself.

Where are you located?

Alberta, Canada. There's almost no biotech here, and my doctoral program was so research focused that students had no opportunity to TA or do placements in industry. So my job options were very limited. By the time I found out about clinical fellowships in biochemistry and molecular genetics, it was too late (I'd already wasted a few years in an unproductive postdoc, had no clinical or applied research experience and no connections in the clinic). What I should have done was a short postdoc in the department of lab medicine and pathology at a university with a clinical fellowship program. Instead I got frustrated, gave up and went to technical college. Oh well, I'm in very good company and I have free time for my new home microscopy hobby

Emily

[Tom Jones]

I well understand the complaints about a microscope light source changing from halogen to LED.

I'm not adverse to technological change at all, in fact I love new toys. But the change in color temperature that came with the switch (with one new Oly BX-43 LED microscope) was dramatic. It required "recalibrating" 30+ years of color matching experience doing cell counts and diffs, and gram stains in microbiology. Not fun. It only adds to the already interesting stress levels you mentioned.