[extropy-chat] Resources for microscopes

[Bret Kulakovich]

Fun! What a blast!

Might be of some help, and is just nice to have - There is an  
excellent text on microscopes available free online by Mortimer  
Abramowitz - Microscope Basics and Beyond. It has great explanations  
for  Kohler illumination, depth of field, oil immersion, etc.

I've been trying to upgrade my (very) old kit scope since it tops out  
at 320x and doesn't have a camera adapter. There has been some really  
nice hardware on eBay - binocular, American Optics, 1000x Oil etc,  
selling for less than US$300.

http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/basicsandbeyond.pdf

I think if you leave your spore traps by your heating/cooling vent  
intakes, or under the front of the couch, you'll have enough sample  
after one twenty-four hour period, perhaps even one day (8hr) of  
activity (such as a Saturday).

This document also talks about swabbing instead of trapping:
http://www.invironment.com/research/v2n12f1.pdf

Which works if you have visual keys that are suspect, sooty  
splotches, etc.


Happy Hunting!

Bret Kulakovich



On Apr 2, 2006, at 2:23 PM, kevinfreels.com wrote:

>
> My daughters and I want to get some petri dishes and collect  
> samples from what is flying around in the air in the house and see  
> if there is mold and other such things. We plan to collect samples  
> in some kind of medium in the dishes and culture it so we can get  
> decent samples for microscopes. Then we would like to look at it in  
> the microscope and find out what we have. It should be a fun  
> experiment for us all.
> Does anyone know what kinds of media I should use for collecting  
> and culturing the samples? Or, does anyone know of a website  
> resource for comparing samples with photographs?  Our main concern  
> is that we have Strachybotrys running around, but others may be  
> present as well.
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
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