Paulo's Microscope & Data tips

 The issue : Many users have complained over the years about the presence of tilling artifacts when they decide to make mosaic images. Namely, it is possible to see lines or boxes through the length and width of the tiled image they acquired. When using brightfield microscopy, this is easily fixed by acquiring an empty image with the same settings of light and focus distance, and then use that image as the reference for shading correction in the program they are using. With fluorescence, this is more complicated because the user needs a fluorescent homogeneous background to focus on. I tried buying fluorescent slides for that purpose, but the results are widely variable, depending on the quality and ease of focus of the slides used.  Solution : I recently acquired calibration beads from Invitrogen ( InSpeck Green Microscope Image Intensity Calibration Kit, wavelength 505/515 nm, 2.5 micrometer size, reference I7219 ) that I was intending to use for another purpose. I generally...

  It has been a while since the last time I had a post on this blog, mostly due to a lot of deadlines to reach related with my work and also due to a couple of accidents that left me bound to my bed/sofa for some weeks in a row. But now I am back! And in 2024, I want to get a deeper look into Laser technology.  On this post I want to share a couple of low-level introductory materials for anyone interested in the history of the invention and development of Laser technology. Laser is the (an)acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, and it is a relatively recent technology that first saw (or made) light in 1960.  For physics amateurs like myself, I recommend getting a general overview of what a laser is and its properties through reading Jeff Hecht's Understanding Lasers: an Entry Level Guide , or the slightly more advanced Fundamentals of Light Sources and Lasers by Mark Csele.  For an entertaining history of the discovery of the laser, I ...