Hello all,
As the applications and inquiries about the UBC Live-cell Course have come
in, it has become clear to me that some of the descriptions of it may have
given some wrong impressions.
Two of the common misconceptions seem to be:
1. That you will not be welcome unless you have a live-cell project.
2. That you should have a very high level of confocal experience before
attending.
In fact, many students participate fully in the course even though they do
not come with their own live-cell project. This is because they are paired
in small groups with others who do have such projects. We stress the
"live-cell" emphasis in the course for two reasons:
- We think of it as the most difficult type of 3D microscopy to do.
Therefore, learning to do it, will teach the best techniques in other areas.
- We think that the ability of LM techniques to perform live-cell studies
is one of their greatest advantages: one that should not be thrown away
when one moves to 3D.
However, many excellent images are produced each year from specimens that
have been fixed and stained. (Try http://corn.eng.buffalo.edu/19983d.htm
and
http://confo.pulmonary.ubc.ca/~dietrich for some examples)
On the second point, it is true that many who have attended in the past
have run major microscopy facilities for years, it is also true that others
have had only slight prior experience.
We start with Kohler illumination (taught by Ernst Keller from Carl Zeiss)
and go on from there. In addition, this year we will add a one-day
pre-course meeting with Ernst for those but who really haven't thought
seriously about microscopes before, although they may have used them.
The best news is that, because of a misprint in one of our announcements,
the deadline for applications has been extended to March 15.
Hope to see you there,
Jim Pawley
PS: For more info: see http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/ladic/course/bulletin.html
****************************************
Prof. James B. Pawley, Ph. 608-263-3147
Room 223, Zoology Research Building, FAX 608-265-5315
1117 Johnson Ave., Madison, WI, 53706 [log in to unmask]
"A scientist is not one who can answer questions
but one who can question answers."
Theodore Schick Jr., Skeptical Enquirer, 21-2:39
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