I was working with a Nikon Labophot 2 at the clinical lab I just started work at today and ran into something interesting I don't undestand. I wanted to check to see if some crystals in a urine specimen 8) were birefringent and therefore uric acid. Normally we would put a polarizer below on the illu...

Craig, When I was playing with Rheinberg, I machined a thin wall, hollow plug, with a recess for a tray at the top, to fit up inside of the condenser to hold the Rheinberg filters as close to the iris as possible. It's easy to do with a lathe and a piece of ABS rod. I was trying (in vain, actually) ...

Getting you hooked??



Tom

Mike, If you would like, I'll come over and take a look at what you've got, and try to figure out what can be done with the pile, and what we'll have to find to make it work (presuming of course its' possible 8) ). Email me and we'll set something up. Over the summer I've managed to acquire 5 Olympu...

Gorgeous Charlie! Built-in Christmas lights in June!!
Looks like another Small World/Bioscapes entry lurking here.

Tom

Hi Charlie,

Beautiful images!! I think I'll second Craig's "urd"

Tom

Wow! Amazing video Ralf!

Very, very nice!!

Hi Brian, Thanks for the info. I didn't think most people here were using preservatives for photography but I though I'd ask since many researchers seem to use it according to the papers I've read. I suspect it doesn't prevent ID and good counts, but it probably makes the little things a bit funny l...

Chris, The presence of reticulocytes does provide an imprecise indicator of red cell production. It can't distinguish between reasons for blood loss, only the response. It's used more to determine whether you are responding, and whether the reduced red cell mass is due to lack of production or blood...

Hi Pau,

Good catch! Yes. There is one extracellular yeast cell just below the upper left neutrophil. All of the rest are intracellular, having been phagocytized. The other stained, more diffuse looking objects are platelets.

Tom

Here's another image from the clinical laboratory. This is a photo of the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, the causative agent of Histoplasmosis, inside neutrophils in a peripheral blood smear. In the wild, H. capsulatum grows as a mycelial fungus, producing microconidia that can be inhaled....

Hi Brian, Perfect! That was just the kind of information I needed. I think I'll start off with the smaller mesh size and see how that goes. One more question. Do you routinely use any preservative? Most of the research reports I've come across tend to add formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde. Are either o...

Thanks Charlie! I had seen Franz's post when it originally appeared, but my search yesterday somehow missed it, and I had forgotten about the specifics. At this point I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for. :roll: I don't have enough experience to know yet. Maybe to just see what's there. :D Ther...

For those of you using plankton nets to collect marine and freshwater samples, what size and kind do you find most useful? I've seen a wide range of mesh sizes available, and while I'm inclined to get a pretty small mesh net, I realize that might not be the brightest idea. Thanks!