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Sarah,
	I'll take a stab at answering you. Note -- I have no stock in 
the nail polish companies!  We store our slides for more than a year 
and often go back. The images are not quite as crispy as original but 
are servicable. We use a water gycerol mixture so there is some 
evaporation, and oxygen may diffuse in. But in any case, we absorb 
excess mountant and the nail polish sets up in moments (although we 
always wait 30 to 60 min before going near a microscope) so I can't 
see how it could cause trouble. And the colors are so pretty (just 
kidding about the last).

	Anyway, that is why we use nail polish.

	Tobias

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at 
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>I have yet to figure out why someone would use nail polish on their 
>slides.  We mostly use inverted scopes and only have problems if the 
>coverlips are small (15mm or less diameter) and too much mounting 
>medium is used- they tend to be dragged around by the surface 
>tension between the immersion oil and the coverslip.  It's easily 
>solved by using a Kimwipe to remove the excess mounting medium. 
>Samples are stored flat in a fridge for several months.  The vapor 
>pressure of glycerol is EXTREMELY low so evaporation is not an issue 
>at all.  The only thing you might have to worry about is fading, but 
>we rarely look at them after more than a month or two.  It seems 
>like adding nail polish with all the solvents, polymers, colors, etc 
>in it is just asking for trouble (see all the postings on this in 
>the archives).  Just because "we've always done it" doesn't make it 
>a good idea.
>Sarah
>
>
>From: Confocal Microscopy List 
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Walters, 
>Katherine S
>Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 1:21 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Substitute to Nail Polish
>
>Search the CONFOCAL archive at 
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       _      ____          __   ____   
      /  \   /          / \    /   \ \        Tobias I. Baskin
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