MICSCAPE - Exploring the miniature world

Issue 275 : February 2019 (ISSN 1365 - 070x) Monthly, next issue March 13th 2019.


The protozoan Blepharisma.
Image by Richard Howey.

Using a Mobile Phone?
Our Mobile site is here.

Main Menu
Home (Microscopy-UK)
       
Article library / Issue archive
        
Micscape Back Issues

 Search site

 Beginners

 Clubs / Socs (Pro/Am)
 
Micropolitan Museum

 Microscopy Primer

Pond life ID kit

 Shop

Smallest page on the web

 3D Images Online

3D Microscope Online

Pippa's Progress
 
Little Imp CD contents free - old microscope catalogues and books (ex. Steve Gill)

About Micscape

Micscape Contacts
 Micscape Editor:
David Walker

Please do not contact the above for image permissions. Each article contributor retains the copyright to their material so should be contacted directly via the link in the relevant article. Thank you.

Comments on Micscape and contributions welcomed.
Contributions: Any modern format welcomed i.e. pdf. doc/docx with embedded images, or html + jpegs.

 

A Blepharisma album: A fascinatingly bizarre protozoan. Or the pink micro-cannibal - Richard Howey (USA) shares a tour de force article on this protozoan and strikingly illustrated.

Confessions of a microscope hoarder - Kirby Kahler (USA) describes how his passion for microscopy and microscopes originated at a young age, illustrated with examples from his collection.

Charles Morgan Topping (1799 - 1874) - Brian Stevenson (USA) and Howard Lynk (USA) present an illustrated essay on this famous mounter. Mirrored with kind permission from Brian's website microscopist.net.

More old slide rambles - Richard Howey (USA) explores some of the prepared slide subjects from the past.

Darwin's other microscope - Les May (UK) shares an essay on a botanical style microscope model acquired after Darwin's HMS Beagle voyage. PDF

A Unitron inverted metallurgical microscope - Michael Reese Much (USA) describes his renovation project of an example of this model acquired from a 'Shop Goodwill' auction site. PDF

10 000 year old pollen - Christian Autotte (Canada) describes and illustrates his study of pollen collected from local peat deposits.  PDF

Further microscopy on stamps. Electron microscopes - David Walker (UK) shares a gallery of the relatively few known stamps depicting an EM plus a selection of covers.

From the Archives: Slide preparation queries crop up regularly in social media discussions so will feature introductory articles of relevance. The very sadly missed Walter Dioni shared a wide selection of articles on techniques suitable for amateurs. My colleague Mol Smith also compiled a book of his articles published just before he passed away and he was able to inspect it.

Safe microscopic techniques for amateurs. I: Mounting microscopic subjects (from December 2002 issue) - Part 1: Introduction - liquid media. Amateurs face increasing difficulty when obtaining reagents; Walter Dioni (Mexico) offers practical advice and protocols on using reagents available to the enthusiast. 

     

     

    We are delighted to receive contributions small or large from microscopy enthusiasts whether a novice or expert. If you have an image, tip or article, why not share it, this magazine is what you make it!

Archive
Look for that elusive article on our site:
 Micscape Magazine past issues online (read articles online using the original illustrated index for each month).
 Article Library (browse articles by category)
 Automated Search (a search engine for keyword searches in all articles)
 Contributor index (a list of all Micscape contributors to date)
News - special notices - misc.

External links. Updated June 2016. Below are some of our favourites, which includes sites with extensive links and/or resources for the optical microscopy enthusiast.

External Microscopy forums: Places to discuss the hobby or to raise queries.
www.photomacrography.net forums, galleries, articles on macroscopy and photomicrography.

Yahoo groups: a 'P' denotes current and archived messages are public i.e. not limited to members.
 Amateur Microscopy P (started November 2008)
Yahoo Diatom Forum P
Microscope P (>1500 members, very active)
Wild M20 microscope
microcosmo (for Italian speaking enthusiasts)
CombineZ P stacking software forum created by the software's author

Facebook groups:
Amateur Microscopy (>1000 members, very active)

Listservers:
Algae-L 'Forum for marine, freshwater and terrestrial algae'. Access to Archives possible for non-subscribers.
Diatom-L 'Research on the diatom algae.' Access to Archives for subscribers only. Link was current March 2016. Many online diatom resources point to an outdated Indiana Univ. listserver. (With thanks to Rob Kimmich for the current link.)

Mikroskopie-Treff.de (Extensive German microscopy forum; some English categories.)
 Mikrobiologische Vereinigung München e. V. Wide range of articles and resources in German.
Le Naturaliste French based forum and image gallery for micro / macro but open to non French speaking international contributors.

Other sites (also see Societies and Clubs page.)
Royal Microscopy Society Journal, 'infocus' and other resources for members and the community.
Quekett Microscopical Club Journal, Bulletin and meetings for members.
 Light Microscopy Forum links and articles
Little Imp Publications public domain books collated by Steve Gill formerly on CD and now free on Micscape.
Mikroskop Museum German website with resources on microscopes / makers .
Molecular Expressions awesome optical microscopy resources
Dennis Kunkel's SEM images stunning images
Diatoms Ireland - resource site by Leszek Wolnik
Leitz museum an illustrated resource compiled by Robert Allen
Microbe hunter microscopy enthusiast website, forum and magazine edited by Oliver Kim
Microscopies online magazine and Forum for French speakers
Micrographia articles, projects for the enthusiast
Microscopy Today journal with online archive
Modern Microscopy online journal by McCrone Group
Fun Science Gallery projects, articles on optics in English and Italian.  
Independent Generation of Research (IGoR) - Wiki style resource for citizen scientists to share their work.
Lens On Leeuwenhoek - extensive resource online by Douglas Anderson
Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek ('Alle de Brieven ..') transcribed and free online at DBNL.
A Cabinet of Curiosities a resource on Victorian microscope slides by Howard Lynk
Klaus Kemp's 'Diatoms' website - offers regional strews and arranged prepared slides of diatoms, an 8 form test slide, radiolaria, insect scales etc and prepares arranged slides on commission.
'Diatoms Ireland' resource by Leszek Wolnik
Historical makers of microscopes and microscope slides Brian Stevenson's extensive resource .
Victorian slide makers
Cambridge rocking microtome resources including manual
www.willemsmicroscope.com Dutch enthusiast Willem Cramer's website
David Jackson's Better Microscopy blog. Regularly updated free resources extending from his 'Better Microscopy' series of books.
Stefano Barone's Diatom Shop sale of his own prepared and arranged slides of diatoms, radiolaria, forams and scales.
www.testslides.com website devoted to Stefano Barone's Diatom Lab test slides.

Microscopy-UK
 parent site coordinator:
Maurice Smith
 
Microscopy-UK and Micscape - established 1995
Micscape is a free magazine for enthusiasts funded by Microscopy-UK and dedicated to non-commercial microscopy.
© Onview.net Ltd, Microscopy-UK, and all contributors 1995 onwards. All rights reserved. Main site is at www.microscopy-uk.org.uk