Green light from the rocks of the Aladzha Monastery

The remains of the Aladzha Monastery on the Black Sea coast are located just above the port city of Varna, Bulgaria. In the very distant past, this monastery was carved out of a steep rock wall consisting of limestone. The monastery is formed by small caves situated at different levels in the rock wall.

In the photos of some pieces of limestone you can recognize the powdery structure of this soft limestone. 

However, let’s still have a look under the fluorescence microscope then; blue light excitation and FITC filter.  As can you see, green light, this white limestone shows auto fluorescence.

Panthera UC-Plan and diatoms

Diatom skeletons that are free of their content like chlorophyll etc. are excellent objects to test and compare the quality of microscope lenses. In this case, some pictures of the recently marketed Motic Panthera are shown.

The photos are stacked to show the sharpness over the entire length of the diatom. The actual microscopic images through the Panthera microscope are even sharper. Some sharpness is lost by the camera and the photo stacking program.

Basics of Light Microscopy: Incident Light Microscopy for opaque samples (II) - Dark Field

In the first part of our Incident Light Microscopy post we already explained the double function of the microscope objective in this kind of application field.

Playing an essential part in the imaging process is the task of every microscope objective. The manufacturer pays a lot of attention and spends remarkable efforts in creating a glass hardware for reliable and “close-to-truth” image results.

In incident light applications, the objective is additionally part of the illumination system. The lamp house sends light horizontally through the illumination axis. A semi-transparent mirror with a 45° orientation deflects the light and sends it through the objective. After reflection from the specimen surface, the light brings back sample information to the eyepieces and/or camera.

For the Darkfield method in an Incident light setup, this description is also valid. We just should know one more fact about optical reflection: The angle of Incidence is equivalent to the angle of Reflection.

Selecting the right microscope

BA Elite Series

Category: Advanced Transmitted Light Microscopes

Target specimen: Transparent samples (sections, smears, emulsions, water samples) from Biology & Medicine; rarely from Industry

Target customer: Lab technicians

This comparison is an approach for classifying different microscope models in a defined performance range. Here we are talking about Motic’s BA Elite series of Advanced Transmitted light microscopes, meant for routine work in university and biomedical lab. The comparison is meant to help you in finding a suitable solution for your lab.

The following chart is based on the specifications of the basic outfit for each model and its upgrade options. Our rating of the single specifications rests upon an individual understanding of the actual numerical values. This is a subjective rating, and we understand that each person might have its own opinion.

BA SERIES - Comparison Chart

We are not alone

In our body and on our skin live a lot of bacteria. On each human cell there are ten bacterial cells. This total of bacteria on and in our body is also called microbiome. Most of these are found in the large intestine: the intestinal flora. In an adult, the intestinal flora consists of 1014 (which are 100,000,000,000,000 bacteria). 99% thereof is strictly anaerobic.

Seeing the effect of radiation damage

The rock matrix contains quartz, plagioclase feldspar, microcline feldspar and biotite mica. The greenish brown flake of biotite shown in the centre exhibits many dark brown circular features resembling cigarette-type burns. These features are known as pleochroic halos and are a diagnostic feature of biotite. These halos are interesting as they are isotropic compared to the surrounding material which is anisotropic. The halo in the centre of field shows a small brightly coloured crystal of zircon which causes the dark brown effect due to a process called metamictization. This process is the radioactive decay and destruction of the crystal structure surrounding the zircon and the affected area becomes amorphous and hence isotropic.