Tobias Baskin's sort-of real time science blog
Last week, I wrote about my misgivings over the 5 degrees of separation (actually, of misalignment) between the rotatable polarizer’s positioning on the microscope stage and the polarization of the microscope’s laser. In discussing with Rudolf Oldenbourg (MBL), I learned that the misalignment does not matter. What does matter is that the peaks and valleys […]
Last week, I carried on the quest for calibration. Avalon remains stubbornly out of reach. I tried things I mentioned last week and a new thing besides. The liquid crystal device seems undamaged. To have a look, I improvised a light-table next to the confocal microscope. I put a flashlight inside a jar (otherwise used […]
Last week, I had three sessions on the confocal to work on calibration. My calibration went from steaming garbage to cold leftover pizza (Fig. 1). Better, but not yet appetizing. What you are looking at in Figure 1 is the field of view that the microscope camera and I see during calibration. As I explained last […]
I can think of stronger words: mutilation? defenestration? OK, OK. I was not injured let alone thrown out of a window. This past week, for the first time, I tried to calibrate the system. What system? The one I brought here to observe and quantify polarized fluorescence on a confocal microscope. The heart of the […]
Maestro to the pit; actors to their places; its time to raise the curtain. Sure, that might be happening over at the Crescent Theatre with their latest production, but I am talking about mine: I am ready to collect data. I am ready because of wo breakthroughs that happened in January. OK, the word breakthrough implies fabulous […]
Hi Lab Fab fans. UMass changed blogging platforms which forced me to take a few weeks off while they retooled. Things seem ok now (?). The following post was written for Jan 14th but still holds. By the way if you like Lab Fab, consider subscribing to never miss a post. Its free! Scroll down below the socks […]
Happy 2024! I hope your year is full of peace and projects. And of course, lots of blogs! Maybe some art too (Fig. 1). On my last post, I described how I plan to observe the orientation of cellulose in the root epidermis. To recap, I need to stain cellulose with a fluorescent dye and […]
Drink up! Whether you celebrate surrounded by dozens of your relatives or you let the day glide by quietly, I hope you are warm, fed, and happy. Alert readers will know that I missed posting last Sunday. I was traveling. Technically, I reached home late that afternoon but with respect to the travail part of travel, I […]
At least one rabbit anyway. About a month ago, I wrote about falling down a hole chasing not a rabbits but root hairs. In efforts to coax fast scarlet into staining roots uniformly, I incorporated the dye into the agar medium, inside of which the roots grow. Alas, giving the roots continuous exposure failed to […]
… bit me. Of course, they always do. Examining an assumption reveals either that it is ok, to a first approximation, or that it isn’t; in the first case, the conditions are accepted as a reasonable compromise and, in the second case, conditions are changed. Without any check, unfortunate conditions come along for the ride, […]