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 […]
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 […]
… 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, […]