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Hi,
In my institution, they solved the problem of measuring and also
finding out which organisms were inside such films, by making
cross-sections and viewing them in the scanning electron  microscope.
This was not very time-consuming, although they had a problem getting
big montages together to illustrate the data.  The group published at
least one paper on their results.

If you search J. L. Greenwood in the literature, you will surely come
up with their paper(s).
Carol Heckman
(Bowling Green State University)

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Hi,
>
>Some things just take time and you will need to spend the time to get a
>true 3D image of your biofilms.   But you can shorten the time by
>reducing the resolution, scanning one time instead of averaging multiple
>scans, and using a lower magnification.  If you need a quality image,
>you will just have to take the time.  I routinely do 200+ slices of
>thicker biofilms and, yes, it takes a long time.
>
>Deb Berglund
>Montana State University
>
>Wijnholds, Anita wrote:
>
>>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>>
>>Dear all,
>>
>>We are measuring the development of biofilms. The z-step is calculated
>>according to the resolution of the lens. In first instance, we get only a
>>few slices as the film is not so thick. But the film grows to more than 50
>>micron and so we get a lot of slices with that resolution.The analysis of
>>the stacks is going to take too much time.
>>Can we reduce the amount of slices? What are criteria to do so?
>>I hope you can give me some good thougts and ideas about this.
>>
>>Kind regards,
>>
>>Anita Wijnholds
>>NIOO-CEME