Introduction
Hi yer! After so many people writing in
about me slide-making page - and seeing how
sophisticated and hi-brow ol' (old) Micscape is getting these days - I
thought it woz (was) time to put some real Larry street-wise microscopy
back into these pages! It's great to see the ol' mag doing good stuff for
accomplished microscopists but as I said to old
Mol - what we need here is to help people get some real hands-on help.
Maybe I opened me big mouth too much - cos (because) he said: "Larry, you're
dead right... go for it...", which is Mol's way of saying : 'You do it!'
So 'ere (here) I am, and boy am I'm gonna
(going) to show yer some real stuff in me range of projects over the coming
months. This is just some of the stuff we're gonna cover: staining, specimen
preparation, sectioning, wax-embedding, culturing... hold on... hold on...
I just thought - you may not even know what these terms mean?!
Projects
Right. Let's start again. Each project
will explain how to do a complete thing on microscopy. We'll start with
some real basic stuff - but don't skip it! We're gonna have a monthly experience
together. I'll show you how my stuff turns out, and together we'll improve
all our skills and swap off any tips we find with each other and anyone
else having a go at these projects.
Resources
Bible
Everything you need to do one of these
projects will be available at a reasonable price through the Mic-UK on-line
shop. Old Mol has promised me he would keep prices down on all items used
for these projects and has even offered some prizes for best efforts of
my readers and visitors. We will be using our own bible - a set of publications
by Eric Marson which combines into a book called Practical
Microscopy. An important thing here though is that you need to get
the loose set of publications
and not the book.
Why?
 Well
- with the loose set, you can put them papers into a little binder (the
papers come already punched) and when we do a project, take out just
the one you need. A page or two lays flat on the bench and stays open -
a book doesn't. Also, if something gets spilt, you only spoil the one paper
and not a whole book. See - I said this was hands on stuff, didn't I!
A Microscope
Maybe you already
have a scope? Great if you do! If not - then I recommend you get the one
below. I have reviewed it here so you get to know what I'll be using for
our projects. It's inexpensive and an entry-level microscope - which means
it is the type you would buy if this is yer (your) first go at Microscopy.
Now I got to let yer in on a well kept secret:-
 Almost
everything yer ever likely to see or will ever want to see - can be seen
with a basic microscope like this one! Yer
don't need a thousand dollar scope - just a robust simple microscope -
a wee bit of know-how (that's where I come in) and a keen eye (that's where
you come in). This one is the Brunel SP03. It costs 101.00 UK pounds
to people living in the UK including delivery and postage charges. Outside
the UK - prices vary depending on if you live in an EEC country or not.
Non-EEC visitors can purchase it for 120.00 pounds including shipping by
air. EEC visitor should order at UK price and wait for quote on shipping
costs. You can buy one this month and get it in time to start our
first practical project in next month's Micscape. It doesn't have a built
in light so you can use it in any country on the planet. I 'll show
you in a moment how to use any light with it that can be purchased locally
in most DIY or hardware shops.
So lets
take a look at this basic scope and get to know it a bit. |
