Under the electron microscope - The Slime Mould Collective2024-03-28T08:40:32Zhttps://slimoco.ning.com/forum/topics/under-the-electron-microscope?commentId=3917201%3AComment%3A47722&feed=yes&xn_auth=noWow, very nice Ian!
Having a…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-11-23:3917201:Comment:479262019-11-23T20:05:59.820ZNemo Andreahttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/NemoAndrea
<p>Wow, very nice Ian! </p>
<p>Having a look at physarum under the TEM is something I'd love to do, but have not been able to convince anyone its worth the TEM time :).</p>
<p>Do you think any part of physarum would be thin enough as is for inspection under TEM? I don't think I could realistically get it sectioned, but perhaps the end of a retracting protrusion might be thin enough? </p>
<p>Wow, very nice Ian! </p>
<p>Having a look at physarum under the TEM is something I'd love to do, but have not been able to convince anyone its worth the TEM time :).</p>
<p>Do you think any part of physarum would be thin enough as is for inspection under TEM? I don't think I could realistically get it sectioned, but perhaps the end of a retracting protrusion might be thin enough? </p> Until now, I always fancied o…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-11-23:3917201:Comment:478792019-11-23T00:29:37.163ZKenneth Ramoshttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/KennethRamos927
<p>Until now, I always fancied or dreamed of being able to work with an electron microscope. I never realized however, just how much and what all else there was involved in preparing specimens for observation. Needless to say, I have learned quite a bit from your presentation that I did not know and I thank you for your time in presenting this post, it was very informative. In the meantime, I will be content with my Zeiss Axiostar Plus TLM. Great images by the way, very nice. </p>
<p>Until now, I always fancied or dreamed of being able to work with an electron microscope. I never realized however, just how much and what all else there was involved in preparing specimens for observation. Needless to say, I have learned quite a bit from your presentation that I did not know and I thank you for your time in presenting this post, it was very informative. In the meantime, I will be content with my Zeiss Axiostar Plus TLM. Great images by the way, very nice. </p> View through a vein, you can…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-11-22:3917201:Comment:480272019-11-22T17:18:36.265Zianhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/ian
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730500873?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730500873?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400"></img></a> View through a vein, you can see the smaller channels or possibly just vesicles as small circles around the central part and then the large blobby inclusion of a main vein with - cell contents pickled into fibrous filaments.…</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730500873?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730500873?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="400"/></a>View through a vein, you can see the smaller channels or possibly just vesicles as small circles around the central part and then the large blobby inclusion of a main vein with - cell contents pickled into fibrous filaments.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730532107?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730532107?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="320"/></a>And finally - collateral damage - this thing must have been living in the slime layer, I thought it was a bacterium but that dark round object looks like a nucleus ( bacteria don't have them ) and the two oval things appear to be mitochondrial so this is a protist of some description, paramecium might be a likely candidate</p> Part 3 - the actual pics -
I…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-11-22:3917201:Comment:477222019-11-22T17:09:52.685Zianhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/ian
<p>Part 3 - the actual pics -</p>
<p>I do a lot of EM work on cells, human samples, cancer cells, plants, bits of cow... I know my way around cellular samples but these things aren't exactly normal and I'm still learning my way around - here's the story so far.</p>
<p>This is not part of my actual work - it's a fun sideline.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730427535?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730427535?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400"></img></a> A nucleus -surrounded by the…</p>
<p>Part 3 - the actual pics -</p>
<p>I do a lot of EM work on cells, human samples, cancer cells, plants, bits of cow... I know my way around cellular samples but these things aren't exactly normal and I'm still learning my way around - here's the story so far.</p>
<p>This is not part of my actual work - it's a fun sideline.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730427535?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730427535?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="400"/></a>A nucleus -surrounded by the thickish double layer of the nuclear membrane. Home of DNA and control centre of the cell, the darker grey patches inside are nucleoli - areas of active DNA transcription - genes being called into service. Around the nuclear membrane you might just make out the tiny gaps of the nuclear pores where things get in and out</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730456269?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730456269?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="400"/></a>Mitochondria - four of them with their convoluted internal membranes, where oxygen is consumed, sugars are processed into ATP - the cells handy store of energy. Most mitochondria don't look this baroque, crib turns out to have really twiddly cristae ( infoldings ) - never seen anything quite like it. That patch of dark round objects is ( I think ) a bundle of actin filaments - the cells moving stuff fibres responsible for a slimes pulse. In the middle of the patch and in between the two 'c' shaped mitochondria you can also see a couple of internal channels.</p>
<p></p> Part 2
Two days of work has g…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-11-22:3917201:Comment:478762019-11-22T16:57:02.376Zianhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/ian
<p>Part 2</p>
<p>Two days of work has given us tiny chips of what's basically set glue - it's dry and solid but even though the tissue pieces are just a couple of mm cubed they're too big - we need things nanometers thick for this.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3729956204?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3729956204?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="340"></img></a> The sample is that tiny black dot in the middle of the yellow resin. It's clamped in the ultramicrotome chuck. The…</p>
<p>Part 2</p>
<p>Two days of work has given us tiny chips of what's basically set glue - it's dry and solid but even though the tissue pieces are just a couple of mm cubed they're too big - we need things nanometers thick for this.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3729956204?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3729956204?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="340"/></a>The sample is that tiny black dot in the middle of the yellow resin. It's clamped in the ultramicrotome chuck. The blue object is my diamond knife - mine - nobody else's, we get very precious about our diamond blades - there are only two other people I have ever entrusted it to. The 'tome drives the chuck down drawing the block over the blade, slivers of sample - just 80nm thick float off onto the water where I collect them and load them. You can slice a human hair into a hundred piece with one of these - lengthways.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730317701?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730317701?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="300"/></a>Staining - cells are basically all carbon and they're set in a resin that's mostly carbon, we need a bit of contrast. The chemicals of choice here are uranium and lead salts. Those tiny discs are the slices of Mandy on copper mesh. After a float and a wash, they're ready to load into the machine</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730375109?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3730375109?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>My second favourite toy - a transmission electron microscope</p>