MicroscopesBlog: Expert's reviews, news, notes on Microscopes, Centrifuges, Lab Coats, Pipettes, Lab Safety, & more Lab Products!

For children who love to explore and investigate the things around them, the Meade Kids 28-piece Microscope Kit ME-MI-KIDS-08019 is designed to bring hours of enjoyment and wonder by opening the door to the hidden microscope world around him or her. The microscope is designed to help kids as they explore the world around them. Your Meade laboratory Microscope set comes supplied with sea salt, brine shrimp eggs which will stay alive for up to five years, and a shrimp hatchery. Have your child hatch and grow the shrimp eggs into mature shrimp which he or she can use to feed the fish in your aquarium! Use the slides to create your own experiments. The included easy-to-understand instruction manual for this Meade Microscope guides you through all the steps you will need in order to open up the unseen world. It even contains a few easy-to-start with experiments. Enter the world of microscopic animals with the Life under Glass experiment. The exploratory nature of this wonderful gift idea through the Meade Microscope and Accessories will provide hours of fun fact finding encouraging your child to dream, inspire and motivate! It adds to their growing curiosity about the world around them and provides hours of just plain fun! Open the door to science and discovery through the Meade Kids 28-piece microscope Kit.

Did you know that there are two basic kinds of microscopes used in class work in botany (there are many other kinds of microscopes used by botanists in research commonly called compound and stereo. When looking to purchase a microscope for the first time these terms may be confusing, because a stereo microscope is technically a compound microscope (the image is magnified by more than one lens)and you will find that all higher quality optical microscopes have binocular eyepieces, although all do not provide a 3-dimensional (stereo) view of the specimen or target. Preferred are the terms high power and low power; these better specify the use of the two types in the laboratory and not the quality of the instrument. High power provides (depending on the lens system magnifications between about 300X and 1000X. A very small or thin specimen is placed on the stage (usually on a glass slide under a cover slip) and viewed close to the objective lens, typically illuminated by light passing through from below. Used to view cells, tissues, very small organisms such as single-celled algae and bacteria. Attention to sample preparation is necessary to achieve good results. Low power microscope provides magnifications typically in the range of 60 to 500X. The specimen is placed on the stage and lighted from above or the side. There is ample room to access and manipulate the specimen while viewing it and for this property, this type is also called a dissecting microscope for its use in plant and small animal dissections. Although most low power microscopes have binocular eyepieces and give a stereo view, some student models do not. Sample preparation is not especially important; what you have is what you will see. If you are looking for a good quality Stereo Microscope take a look at the LOMO LA-MI-SF-100B. This is a binocular stereo microscope that will provide you with exceptional quality for the money. This microscope is just $395.00! You can't beat it for the quality. Comparable optical performance from Western European and Japanese manufacturers of parallel path stereo microscopes literally can cost $3,000-$6,000).

Do you know anyone who is in need of a superb microscope for analysis or research? I have one in mind. Check out this Celestron Professional Compound Microscope CI-MI-44108. This microscope is a large, heavy duty microscope meant for very serious users. It has an extra large mechanical stage that provides ample working space and knobs to control both axes for easy centering of your specimin slides. It comes with two sets of wide angel microscope eyepiece objectives that will allow you to work with eight different powers. 1500x Power binocular microscope, Binocular Head a 360 Rotatable Two of 10x and two of 15x Wide Field microscope-eyepieces 4x, 10x, 40x, objective lenses fully Coated Glass Optics Metal Body w/ 360 Rotatable Monocular Head Built-in Halogen llumination mechanical Stage Five Prepared Slides Abbe Condenser Iris Diaphragm Powers Available 40x, 60x, 100x, 150x, 400x, 600x, 1000x, 1500x Coaxial Focus with Coarse and Fine Focus Knobs. This microscope is made entirely of metal and will hold up for years to come. All optical components are made of glass and fully coated to eliminate image degrading, reflections and any kind of glare. This microscope also comes with 5 prepared slides. How much better can it get! Well, it also comes with 3 filters, blue, green, and yellow that are useful for enhanced contrast and color correction. Ok we're not done yet. This microscope comes with a two year limited warranty! Don't forget that it comes with a halogen lamp too! If you have someone on your Holiday list that is hard to buy for, this just might be the item that sends them to complete exploration and back again! Watch them have a wonderful time exploring their love of Science!

Does anyone know what to get the Science Teacher for all their dedicated teaching this year? Well, I have an idea. Instead of getting him/her something that they will probably re-gift, try a group gift that ties into their love of Science! What about getting them a great Teaching Microscope! The way I see it is if you want to be motivated by your teacher, give them something to motovate them! If you are looking for a good teaching microscope and you are working within a budget, take a look at the Unico CI-MI-44340. This Microscope would be a great addition to a middle school Science Teachers lab. This microscope will enable them to teach using a microscope with all the features for their introductory Science classes. The price is about $150.00 for this unit. Another great addition to any Science Teachers lab will be the Celestron Digital Microscope with 3.5" LCD Screen and integrated 2.0 digital camera. This microscope will enhance any students interests by being to visualize their specemins on this LCD screen. This is considered the cherry on top of the cake for most students. This microscope is about $300.00, which when it boils down to your childs interest in school is really not a bad price. You could also purchase some blank slides, frosted slides or even some prepared slides to add to any Science Lab. Teachers and Students alike will be thrilled with the opportunity to use any new Laboratory Products to enhance their learning environment!

LDPE, PS, PTFE, what do they mean? Labware is produced in many different plastics for different applications. Let us start with Polystyrene, PS, this is a hard clear plastic. Proteins stick to it so biochemical researchers like it for protein assays where they want the proteins to stick. Polycarbonate, PC, is another such plastic. Products which use these plastics are labware such as culture tubes, culture plates, flasks, and microtiter plates. Another common material for labware is Polypropylene, PP. This material has some opposite properties of PC, proteins and other substances do not stick to it so it is very easy to clean. Another important property of polypropylene is heat resistance; for this reason PP is used in items which will be processed through an autoclave. Beakers, flasks, centrifuge tubes, pipette tips, reagent bottles, autoclave bags and many more items are made with PP. Low-Density Polyethylene, LDPE, is used in products requiring toughness and flexibility such as wash bottles, transfer pipettes, cubitainers, and bags. LDPE has excellent chemical resistance to acids, alcohols, bases, and esters. LDPE has good chemical resistance to aldehydes, ketones and vegetable oils. High-Density Polyethylene, HDPE, is used where similar chemical resistance is required but more rigidity is needed such as carboys. Polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE, is most commonly known by the Brand name Teflon®. PTFE has a high melting temperature and extreme chemical resistance even to hydrofluoric acid which is used to etch glass. PTFE is so slippery it is the only known substance a gecko cannot stick to. In the lab PTFE is used in separatory funnels, beakers, flasks, reagent bottles, wash bottles, joint sleeves, and most commonly on magnetic stir bars.