Primary culture of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (or chick embryos, etc.) will beat spontaneously, either individually, or as sheets if dense enough.  GFP labeling of the right structural protein will illustrate the striations in the live cells.  Very bizarre to see under the microscope.  
C


Carl A. Boswell, Ph.D.
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Univ. of Arizona
520-954-7053
FAX 520-621-3709


-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Runions
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 10:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Simple animal demo specimen ideas

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Dear microscopists,

Each year at our university Science Bazaar we demonstrate our imaging 'prowess' and equipment to the community at large (adults and kids).  This event is always well received and the biggest attraction of all is usually the dissecting microscopes because we let the kids look at their disgusting fingernails and they like that.  SEMs work well because we can show head lice and rats tongue and... well you are probably starting to see a theme.

The problem is giving a really good demo with the confocal microscopes - we show GFP labelled organelles moving around inside living cells and demos of 3D reconstruction but this doesn't really seem to capture the kids imaginations.

Does anybody have a favorite organism or staining technique that is simple and effective as a demo in a situation where lots of people are moving through fairly quickly.

I appreciate your suggestions.

John

--
John Runions, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology
Oxford Brookes University
School of Life Sciences
Gipsy Lane, Oxford
OX3 0BP
UK

01865 483 964
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/lifesci/runions/HTMLpages/index.html!