Azure ingots for Christmas

This picture will be very familiar to many, as it shows some distinctive crystals of copper sulphate. They are known due to their very characteristic deep blue colour and their oblique rectangular formations.

No sweat

Sweat glands are located all over the body in the skin. In some places they are relatively common. Thus one finds about 300 sweat glands in 1 cm² of the skin of the palm, and on the back only 50. They are located in the lower layer of the dermis.

Polarization Contrast - Coloring your sample

Polarization Contrast is an affordable and easy contrast method to detect birefringence, which is a material characteristic that can be found in minerals, crystals, plastic foils, fibres, but also in botanical and biomedical samples.

Birefringence is based on the crystal structure of the material, or on the organized pattern of macromolecules within an amorphous matrix.

Living apart together

Volvox Aureus is a Chlorophyte, or green alga. It exists as a grand spherical colony. Each little alga within the colony bears two flagella, whip-like hairs. The individual algae are connected to each other by thin strands of cytoplasm that enable the whole colony to swim in a coordinated fashion. The individual algae also have small red eye spots.

MoticEasyScan: A one-click scanner for producing and sharing high-quality digital images

Digitization of “classical” glass slide information is a hot topic in recent cytology, histology and pathology. Big machines for high throughput environments are available from multiple suppliers.

The advantages of digital data are obvious: safe storage of fragile patient information, ready for a worldwide exchange and long-term scientific work. Clinical analysis may be shared, a second opinion from a remote expert is easily available. Independently, a second field of application for such scanners may come to mind. Digitized slides are an easily accessible tool for university teaching. Hundreds of