Alice Schmid asks about CD versus optical disks for data storage. We use 1
gbyte read/write/erasable optical disks and based on the way our people utilize
them, I would not go with anything as primary storage other than erasable
media. We have on order something called a TORAY drive which uses a medium that
can be read in many CD-ROM drives. The media is erasable and cheaper than
optical disks. We will try it out as an alternative to our optical disks in the
hope that the media will be more transportable, for example if you want to take
your files to other machines for additional software manipulation.
        We haven't gotten the drives yet for the confocal facility, so I can't
give you any personal experience on them yet. But I have high hopes for their
versatility.
        ANDREA ELBERGER
        Anatomy and Neurobiology
        The University of Tennessee, Memphis       [log in to unmask]