>Dear confocalists
>
>Like many other confocal users I want to study processes in
>living cells. To do this we use a Zeiss 410 confocal microscope setup,
>however there are no facilities to keep our cells at 37 degrees
>celsius. We can buy from Zeiss a heating plate, but this is a very
>expensive solution. I wonder what methods are used by others to keep
>cells alive. One of the problems we expect by using a heating
>plate is the heat drain from the lens just underneath our
>preparation. How do you measure the temperature ?. We are using cell
>preparations cultured on glass.
>
>All reactions are welcomed.
>
 
Just work in a 37C room.  So long as it's dry it shouldn't hurt anything.
You might want to pipe in cool air to your laser and pipe the exhaust out,
but that just requires a few metres of flexible air-conditioning pipe.
(Unless you prefer to use the laser to heat the room!)  The temperature
here routinely reaches higher temperatures than that in summer and it
doesn't seem to hurt our computers or monitors.
 
                                                Guy Cox