Woody Stem (l.s.) & w/Algal Growth

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:29 pm

A cold and rainy afternoon here in North Carolina. Having nothing much else to do but take a short nap

I figured I would try my hand at cutting some thin woody stem specimens (laterial sections) free-handed. Here are the results.

This next set shows an algae that has made its home on the slick surface of the stems bark. I might add that I find this algae to be widely found on most woody stems and other wood substrates such as fence posts, the sides of your home (even on vinyl siding) and on bracket fungi also.

Zeiss Axiostar Plus with 40X/.065 CP Achromat
Sony DSC-P200
1/40 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100 (first three images)
1/20 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100 (last image)
Substage Halogen illumination
Post processing and stitching: Photo Impact 6

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:41 pm

Wow Ken! That looks great!

But didn't you miss a forum section?

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:48 pm

Yeah I Goofed!

So now here it is in Micro where it belongs. Thanks Nikola.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:15 pm

That freehand slice looks awful nice Ken. The algae shots are super also. What did you do...use a little scraping of wood?

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:42 pm

Hi Ken--

Very nice hand sections, and nice illumination effects too. Now you can try staining them... You can get some safranin O and some aniline blue from ebay in small, amateur-suitable quantities and see how you can ID various components of your section. As spring approaches you should try sectioning a bud, its a bit trickier since it has more friable structures in it, but you'll like the results.

--David

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:49 pm

Doug asked:

What did you do...use a little scraping of wood?

Well no...I snatched a small twig off of a Tulip Poplar out here beside the house and brought it inside just to see if I could take a razor blade and cut a section thin enough to view the cell structure of the wood. Well, there just so happened to be some algae homesteading the bark and when I cut the second slice with the double edged razor blade. The algae showed up in the scopes field of view, at the edge of the cut section where the bark was when I took a look at it and so that is how I happened to get that photograph.

Hey did ya all hear about the guy who shot a duck and took it home and put it in the freezer? They were going to prepare the duck for dinner and found out that it was still alive! So, they took it to the vet and it looks as though the duck is going to make it. Dangedest thing I ever heard of and on top of that, what was an undressed duck doing in the freezer to start with. I would usually gut and skin mine, taking off the head and feet prior to putting the thing in the freezer. Plus keep the wings and cape for fly tying. Remind me not to go to these peoples house for dinner. No wonder the duck wasn't dead. Sounds a little "back woodsy" to me.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:00 pm

Hey David

You must have posted while I was answering Doug’s post. Yeah I have never tried staining and I really should, but first I need to devise me some kind of microtome. I started to by a hand microtome but those things are unreal in cost! Why so much? I can understand one of the big pro models costing an arm and a leg but a hand held one with a straight razor

Oh well.

Hey thanks David!

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:47 pm

Hi Ken--

I don't know why those hand microtomes cost so much. Since most hand sections don't have to be 5 microns (like you'd get with a standard rotary microtome) I just use a medium-sized machinist's micrometer that screws into a threaded hole in a piece of stainless steel, so that the shaft of the micrometer can push up through the hole. You can make a threaded piece of aluminum or brass too for that matter. Then you can just sandwich your specimen in a slice of carrot or pith or what have you, attach it to the top of the micrometer shaft, slowly push it up until its above the block, and slide your razor blade across the top. A 0.0005 inch graduated micrometer can give you ~10-20 micron sections, and a 0.001 will work as well. If you want to be really fancy, you can make some glycerin gelatin and embed your object in a little straw or similar, then freeze it with a can of electronic freezing medium (like Miller-Stephenson Quik Freeze) and make your own cryosections. That's worked pretty well for me when I don't want to bother with the real microtome. A simple water or ethanolic solution of the dyes will stain things easily.

--David

p.s. make sure your duck is dead before you try to microtome it.....or refrigerate it...

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:57 am

I may give that machinist's micrometer a try Dave. Thanks!

bernhardinho · Post by **bernhardinho** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:43 am

Hi Ken,

welcome on board of the plant cutters. Very nice results!!

But hang on: 50$ for a microtome, do you think that's too much?

http://www.pelletlab.com/microscope_accessories.htm

Bernhard

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:57 am

You know I saw that Bernhard. No, that isn't a lot for a handheld model but I was thrown off by the rather poor images of the instrument. I may email them for more info and a much better image of the device. Thanks Bernhard

bernhardinho · Post by **bernhardinho** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:05 am

Well, it won't be that bad. And you can always improve it:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/larry/p ... oj3_2.html

Bernhard

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:19 pm

Interesting article on wax embedding.

Even more interesting was that bench microtome, of which I have never seen before, I like that.

Unfortunately the link "Larry" provided was a dead end to Brunel. So I will have to scour their web site. Thanks Bernhard, I am seriously looking into getting in to cutting sections.