Questions tagged [microscopy]
The technique of using microscopes to view objects that are otherwise too small to be easily seen by the naked eye.
155
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21
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4answers
885 views
Machine learning for light microscopy -- problems to solve?
I would like solve some biological problems that would improve the state-of-the-art of biology or bioinformatics. In particular, I want to apply machine learning on light microscopic images. The ...
20
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1answer
623 views
What is going on in these cells?
Here are some pictures of human iPS cells in culture. After several passages, some cells look really weird, can you help me understand what is going on? What am I looking at? What are those blastocyst-...
18
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2answers
4k views
What is the magnification necessary to see pond life
My daughter is 5 and wants to learn about Biology. I thought a great start is to see life from pond water through a USB microscope. It would be great if she could see organisms like amoebas, ...
17
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2answers
49k views
What magnification do I need to see blood cells?
If I want to buy a microscope for my kids to be able to view single celled creatures and blood cells, about what magnification is required? A Celestron Pentaview digital scope claims up to 600×. Is ...
15
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4answers
866 views
Online repositories of scanning electron microscope photographs?
I have looked at every single Wikimedia commons photo in the category 'scanning electron microscope'. Unfortunately, I could not find any other repositories of such photos, but I would readily look at ...
14
votes
1answer
921 views
Can anyone ID this microorganism?
I found this microorganism in a wet moss sample taken from my backyard in Richmond, Virginia (USA). I took some pictures of it at 40x, 100x, and 250x. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think it'...
11
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3answers
1k views
What to look for when buying a light microscope?
I am a science lover and want to buy a microscope to explore things around me. Like studying cell structures, microorganisms, blood and plants. It would be great if there is way to photograph slides. ...
10
votes
1answer
271 views
Star-like organism seen in microscope
I found this strange star-like thing while observing a slide of onion root somatic cells. I don't know that it is; I even doubt if it is an organism. It has conical arms directed radially outwards ...
9
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2answers
4k views
Microscope recommendation for an amateur?
I am a mathematics student looking for a hobby and this has come up as a potential hobby. Thus I am interested in buying a high-magnification microscope that is within the limits of my budget.
My ...
7
votes
1answer
35k views
How do I identify the different stages of meiosis under microscope?
This is a question I'm troubled with as my exams are knocking at the door. I need help so I decided to post this here.
Here's what I know and understand about meiotic stages:
Specimen: Grasshopper (...
6
votes
4answers
653 views
What kind of microscope for ML/biological research?
I am a computer science student, focusing on machine learning applications. I have been always interested in biology but I lack any training in it. Now, I had an idea that I could introduce myself to ...
6
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4answers
459 views
Super-resolution imaging in vivo
Are there any microscopy modalities or techniques for in vivo imaging at higher resolutions than the diffraction limit?
I was looking at this list: Super resolution microscopy, but they don't talk ...
6
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3answers
13k views
Is it true that viruses cannot be seen with phase-contrast microscopy?
There appears to be a lot of material on the internet claiming that viruses can be only seen with electron microscopes, and not with light microscopes. To the contrary, for example this old paper ...
6
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2answers
125 views
What is the state of automated quantitative analysis?
Quantitative analysis of microscope images is essential for many types of studies, but the techniques used most often are very labor-intensive. I have been able to find some literature about using ...
6
votes
1answer
170 views
What Websites Have Image Libraries for Bacteria and other Microorganisms
What Websites Have Image Libraries for Bacteria and other Microorganisms?
With age of cell phone microscopes and hand held spectrometers it would be interesting and valuable to be able to compare in-...
6
votes
3answers
154 views
What is a good source that will help me classify protists?
I am a 15 year old that enjoys looking at the micro world. The only issue that I have is that I can't find a good online source that will help me classify the name of the micro organism that I'm ...
5
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2answers
434 views
Dyes to bind to double stranded DNA?
Are there any commercially available fluorescent dyes that will bind only to double stranded DNA (not RNA, single stranded DNA etc.) for studying in vitro using confocal microscopy?
5
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2answers
1k views
Can living cells be imaged with electron microscopy?
According to this article from October 2009, http://news.mit.edu/2009/electron-microscope
"Electron microscopes are the most powerful type of microscope,
capable of distinguishing even individual ...
5
votes
1answer
629 views
Mites on ginger root
I was just looking at some mouldy ginger found in the fridge under the microscope and was horrified/delighted to find (what looked to be) mites growing in it. I have searched the web and can only find ...
5
votes
1answer
722 views
Software for counting fly eggs
Is there any software that could be used to rapidly (quicker than humans) count the eggs laid by Drosophila on a substrate by placing them under a microscope with a camera attached? The eggs are laid ...
5
votes
1answer
24k views
Isotropy of sarcomere bands in skeletal muscle cells
As seen under a polarization microscope, the A-Band in skeletal muscle fibres is so named because it is anisotropic in its refractive index which is a characteristic of orderly crystalline structure. ...
5
votes
0answers
117 views
What are these structures in blood from a nosebleed?
I decided to look at some blood from a nosebleed (not mine) under the microscope and took some pictures of the results. There many large orange structures interspersed within the blood cells and I'm ...
4
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3answers
14k views
Cannot see images beyond a certain magnification with a microscope
Using a new microscope with my son, we cannot see images beyond a certain magnification:
...
4
votes
2answers
6k views
What kind of microscope should be used to view biological structures (such as spores) roughly 5 µm in length?
I would like to be able to identify genera of fungi based on the shape, size, and colour of spores. So the requirements are:
Must be able to view a 5 micrometre object clearly with reasonable ...
4
votes
2answers
355 views
Atomic force microscopy: depth penetration?
What depth penetration can one typically get with atomic force microscopes? (i.e. how far into the tissue can one image?). I have found numbers on acquisition times (minutes) and spatial resolutions (...
4
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2answers
1k views
How to operate a microtome?
In the picture above (Source: Amazon.com, United Scientific MCT001 Hand Microtome) we can see a microtome. How is it operated?
4
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1answer
3k views
Tissue identification in vascular bundle sections
I always have trouble differentiating the tissues in a vascular bundle. I specially cannot properly identify the vascular cambium and phloem. I know xylem vessel elements are large cells with thicker ...
4
votes
1answer
233 views
How can I reduce the background gradient in phase contrast microscopy?
I'm looking for ways to set up a phase contrast microscope to reduce the brightness gradient that appears across the background of my images.
I use phase contrast to find the outlines of cells in my ...
4
votes
1answer
385 views
How to evaluate the efficacy of an antibody for fluorescence microscopy?
I'm trying to evaluate data taken from fluorescence microscopy with antibody staining, and am wondering whether there is any standard way to evaluate the specificity of the antibody for such ...
4
votes
2answers
100 views
Antibody staining
I am staining tissue sections and I did a mistake, I was supposed to have mixed 3 primary antibodies but I stained only with one of them. After the 1h incubation I washed 10 min with PBS and then I ...
4
votes
3answers
6k views
What is the best way to clean immersion oil from the microscope lens?
My job is to photograph mushroom spores at x100 using immersion oil.
What is the best practice for cleaning the oil from the lens?
Right now I am just wiping it with a cotton swab.
4
votes
1answer
280 views
What microscope/magnification would I need to observe P. Acnes bacteria?
I am currently attempting to grow a culture of P. Acnes bacteria. Right now, my only hope in identifying colonies of the bacteria in the culture is to use a black light to find colonies that glow ...
4
votes
2answers
153 views
Does cheese contain cells of animal stomachs?
When cheese is made with calf rennet, is it possible that the cheese contains cells of this calf (stomach)?
Dried and cleaned stomachs of young calves are sliced into small pieces and then put into ...
4
votes
2answers
886 views
How to visualize the ECM?
Specifically, I'd like to look at changes in HA (hyaluronic acid) production. Most often you only see people staining the cell surface or removing cells from culture for fixation and then imaging. ...
4
votes
1answer
747 views
What is a simple protocol for staining cells in suspension?
I am an engineering student studying how electric fields affect cells, specifically the phenomena of electroporation in living cells.
I know that electroporation is widely used for introducing genes ...
4
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0answers
77 views
How to select a microscope for deep microscopy? Specifically for Deep Learning/ML model development
I am new to biology and microscopy. I am a data scientist. I am faced with a question on selecting a good microscope that enables automation of scanning the slides. And cellular object detection using ...
4
votes
0answers
47 views
Can I just simply exchange the eyepiece in a microscope?
I hope it's the right place to ask about microscopy. So my question is what parameters do I have to take into account when buying a new eyepiece for my microscope? Currently I own an Aomekie XSP-42 ...
4
votes
0answers
887 views
How can I keep pond water "alive"?
I've been preparing wet slides for my kids to look at from pond water. I have a mason jar of pond water. What can I do to keep the microbes in the jar alive going forward so that we can look at it any ...
3
votes
5answers
124 views
Woodland outdoor microscopy advice
Let me start by saying I have never used a microscope outdoors, and in general I have never owned a microscope nor used one regularly.
However, I am currently developing and organising some ...
3
votes
1answer
60 views
What do the text annotations in an electron micrograph mean?
I saw a photograph taken from an electron microscope, with some text.
I want to know what is the meaning of these numbers and letters?
Thank you! Regards.
3
votes
1answer
3k views
What does fluorogenic mean for fluorescent probes?
Many fluorescent probes are described as being fluorogeninc as an advantage for fluorescence microscopy but what does fluorogenic mean? Dictionary definitions state that it means generating ...
3
votes
1answer
148 views
How are new staining protocols designed for microscopy?
How are new staining protocols designed for microscopy? Is it manual work or does it rely on computer simulations?
Say for example I thought the H&E staining does not bring enough contrast. How ...
3
votes
1answer
505 views
Needle-like crystals observed in wild-grape wine under microscope. Potentially harmful?
I recently crushed and strained about thirty pounds of wild grapes to ferment into wine. About a month in, I did a visual inspection of the wine under microscope to try and identify some yeast and ...
3
votes
2answers
204 views
How much are phase-contrast and dark-field microscopy used in biological research? [closed]
How much are phase-contrast and dark-field microscopy used in biological research today? It seems these were invented a long time ago, so I am thinking would it be a good idea to learn these ...
3
votes
1answer
587 views
Benefits of CLARITY?
What are the benefits of CLARITY over this technique that was published more than a year earlier?
Of course the second technique needs a fancier microscope that is likely more expensive and requires ...
3
votes
1answer
133 views
Sample suggestions for phase contrast microscopy
I am a non-bio student working on an academic paper recently and would like to have some sample preparation for phase contrast microscope.
For it to work, I imagine the sample to be:
Transparent;
...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Can oil be used instead of water in preparing wet mounts for microscopy?
Is there a reason that oil (e.g., vegetable or clear mineral) is not used to make wet mounts in microscopy? I am not referring to oil immersion technique but substituting oil for water in wet mounts ...
3
votes
1answer
465 views
What are these stars in my microscopic image?
I see this very curious patterns on the sun-facing side of a jasmine (probably) leaf - visible with a makeshift microscope (about 50x)
What are them? Pores? Are there other plants with similar ...
3
votes
1answer
53 views
Ferns: How big can a circular sorus be?
I looked at some small ferns under the microscope. The circular sori of the ferns I looked at were less than 2 mm in diameter. The microscope I used had rather weak magnification, so I didn't get to ...
3
votes
1answer
215 views
Deducing synaptic strength from electron micrographs?
There are several promising techniques for connectomics based on iterative sectioning and imaging of tissue with scanning electron microscopes (e.g. FIB-SEM and ATUM)
By looking at such micrographs, ...
