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Hi,

Several quick comments:
1. Immersion oil is an engineered substance and has a finite
lifetime.  While it is very usable in non-critical applications nearly
indefinitely, if you are doing critical work, we recommend replacing it
annually.

2. If any of the crystals mentioned in these discussions are birefringent,
they will certainly interfere with both polarized light analyses and DIC
(which is derived from POL).

3. I am glad to see mention of both SPI and Cargille.  We've had great
technical support from both.  For those of you who are interested in going
a step further, Cargille has a great little booklet by R. A. Allen
on  measuring refractive index.  My contact there: Phyllis Torrisi,
973-239-6633.

4. As for what to do with that older immersion oil:  we routinely use it as
a mounting material for crystals, fiber glass, glass beads, etc.  The
improved RI relationship (important: close but not matching) often makes
thick edges disappear and removes the RI gradient from rounded structures
sufficiently to make those difficult-to-image features neat and clean and
great for automated image analysis.

Hope this was helpful.

Best regards,
Barbara Foster
Microscopy/Microscopy Education
125 Paridon Street, Suite 102
Springfield, MA 01118
PH: 413-746-6931  FX: 413-746-9311  Web: www.MicroscopyEducation.com


"Why didn't they teach us that sooner?"  ... probably because no one
thought to call MME about customized, on-site courses.  Offered in all
areas of microscopy, sample prep,and image analysis, they make an immediate
impact on your productivity.




At 03:47 PM 5/7/02 +0100, Adrian Thomson wrote:
>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Hi
>
>On the subject of immersion oils,I found these pages
>on the net and thought they may be of help answering
>queries.
>http://www.2spi.com/catalog/ltmic/cargille.shtml
>http://www.biotech.ufl.edu/EM/data/immoil.html
>
>Cheers......................
>
>
>Mr Adrian Thomson
>Confocal Microscopy Technician
>Edinburgh University
>Department Of Neuroscience
>1 George Square
>Edinburgh
>EH8 9JZ
>Tel-0131 651 1880
>FAX-0131 650 3255