Hi Martin,

In addition to the items mentioned by others ...

* fluorescence microscopy should be done in semi-darkness - the 
overhead fluorescent lighting is mostly useful to find stuff that has 
fallen on the floor

* track lights, with yellow or orange filters, for each station, with 
dimmer switch near where each light is being aimed at. Several 
independent lights per station - one for each side of scope, plus one 
for keyboard and notebook area(s), one for any prep bench.

* lasers - I believe lasers are best kept in a cool room, 20 C. 
Unfortunately, many users find 20 C cold (not perfectly correlated to 
body mass index, but not bad approximation). Might be a bit less of 
an issue when the lasers are in their own cooling box. Your field 
service engineers may not like this but one option is to put the 
lasers in an adjacent room, with its own cooling.

* multiphoton microscope - "do not look at laser with remaining eye" 
- MP lasers and potentially high power CW lasers (especially if 
EasySTED is implemented on everyone's current generation confocal's - 
PubMed 20173926) have the potential to end up in someone's eye. this 
would be bad. Whether curtains, baffles, or (dare I imagine it?) well 
trained users, you want to avoid blinding someone. See the laser -> 
eye damage track record at US DoE national physics labs for proof 
that this is an issue.

* lots of power on the walls, and the right kind of power (i.e. 220 V 
for certain confocal systems). Come to think of it, the laser room 
would also be a great place for one or more big UPS's for the 
facility (for one thing, help reduce noise - see also next item).

*** Don't forget about VIP tours! For one thing, this amply justifies 
big flat screen monitor(s) at each station. Also, that the rooms be 
designed to be quiet - HVAC is especially a problem here - most 
research labs are very noisy.

Best wishes,

George


At 10:01 AM 5/5/2010, you wrote:
>Dear All--
>
>Some space here is being remodeled for use as an imaging core and 
>it'd be helpful to know what other institutions have specified (or 
>WISH they had specified) as requirements for the space.  (It'd also 
>be helpful to know what people think, in retrospect, was a waste of money.)
>
>One thing that particularly concerns me is temperature stability--we 
>really don't want 5-degree C air from the air-conditioning system 
>blasting down onto a microscope that's in the middle of a z-series. 
>However, I can only guess at the limits of acceptability.  What have 
>other groups specified and found works?  I expect that saying "hold 
>the set-point +/- 0 degrees" isn't going to be helpful to the contractor.
>
>--My recollection is that the list has covered similar topics in the 
>recent past, but the search terms I've tried aren't coming up with 
>the hits I'm looking for.
>
>Thanks--
>
>Martin Wessendorf
>--
>Martin Wessendorf, Ph.D.                   office: (612) 626-0145
>Assoc Prof, Dept Neuroscience                 lab: (612) 624-2991
>University of Minnesota             Preferred FAX: (612) 624-8118
>6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St. SE    Dept Fax: (612) 626-5009
>Minneapolis, MN  55455                    e-mail: [log in to unmask]







George McNamara, Ph.D.
Image Core Manager
Analytical Imaging Core Facility
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
Miami, FL 33136
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
305-243-8436 office
http://www.sylvester.org/AICF (Analytical Imaging Core Facility)
http://www.sylvester.org/AICF/pubspectra.zip (the entire 2000+ 
spectra .xlsx file is in the zip file)
http://home.earthlink.net/~geomcnamara