Microscopy & Imaging Resources on the WWW

Many of these pages were originally part of a SWEHSC Cellular Imaging Facility Core (NIEHS P30 ES006694) web resource called Microscopy & Imaging Resources. They were moved here to simplify that site and to make these resources more broadly available to the UA campus community. Portions of this site have been online (different domain names) since 1996. (Site history)

Microscopy for K-12 Students & Educators

• Educational resources - On-line resources for K-12 teachers & students.
• Image Galleries - Links to collections of beautiful images that use a number of microscopic imaging techniques.

General Microscopy

• Microscopy Resources - General information about professional societies, vendors, web resources and email discussion groups.
• Free Publications - Seven publications for professionals that cover microscopy & imaging from a variety of perspectives.

Light Microscopy

• Light Microscopy - Links to excellent resources that introduce concepts of light & optics, as well as how light microscopes work.
• LM lenses – Magnification is important, but so are NA and WD

Histology

• Histology - Links to sample preparation protocols and staining techniques, immuno / histo / cyto-chemistry, collections of images of tissues prepared for histology and safety.
• Formaldehyde Fixatives (available as a PDF on our printable materials page)
• Bouin's Fixative

Confocal & Fluorescence Microscopy

• Confocal Microscopy - Information about the history, confocal theory, principles and optics as well as a selection of general links.
• Fluorescence Techniques - Links with information about fluorescent dyes, antibodies and resources for sample preparation.

Electron Microscopy

• Electron Microscopy - Information about history, principles, sample preparation techniques, and www resources for TEM & SEM.

Digital Imaging

• Introduction - A look at the basics of what makes up a digital image, color and file formats, as well as a few links on human vision.
• Software - Links to resources for several commercial and freeware image editing programs.
• Digital Image Ethics - A short history of some of the issues that journalists have struggled with and twelve suggested guidelines for working with digital images. Available as a PDF file on our printable materials page. Longer articles on Digital Image Ethics include a 2010 review entitled Avoiding Twisted Pixels, and a 2012 book chapter entitled Digital Images are Data.

Printable materials

• General (Basic Microscope Alignment, Light Microscopy Tips, Formaldehyde Fixatives, Light Microscope Vendors for Southern Arizona)
• Digital Imaging (Digital Imaging Ethics, Potentially the most dangerous dialog box in Adobe Photoshop™, Using the Histogram Tool)
• Instrument-specific handouts (Improving Image Quality on the UACC Leica SP5 confocal, #1.5 Coverslips for Microscopy, Sample Preparation Guidelines for SR-SIM)