In answer to the query of Tony Travis with respect to the use of the
Meridian Insight confocal microscope. I think it is a bit early to ask this
question as the instrument came only recently on the market (about 10
months). Nevertheless I know one :
S. Grabski et al., Endoplasmic Reticulum Forms a Dynamic Continuum for
Lipid Diffusion between Contiguous Soybean Root Cells. The Plant Cell,
Vol.5,25-38,Jan. 1993.
 In our lab. the instrument is in heavy use  both in the  real time mode
(with direct viewing of the confocal images by eye or observation with a
videocamera ) or using a cooled CCD for image registration. We find that,
thanks to the integration capabilitie of these cooled CCD's that we have
superb sensitivity and are able to make confocal images with good
Signal-to-Noise ratio even of very weakly fluoresing specimen . A number of
biological applications are presently developed, for instance single gene
detection and confocal localization in plant nucleii.