Question: how do you use a microscope.

Alex Batchelor answered on 13 Nov 2019:

My plant has quite thin roots which are very fragile so before I look at them I have to put them into something called agar. Agar is a kind of gel and it protects the roots and makes it easier to pick them up and move them around without damaging.
When they’re in the agar I use a machine called a Vibratome which slices the agar and the roots very very thin, (the slices are less than a millimeter thick). It chops across the root so I end up with circles of root, a bit like slicing carrots to get circles but a lot smaller!
Then I soak the slices of root and agar in a dye so that its easier to see the root under the microscope.
After they’ve soaked I put the slices on a thin sheet of glass to keep them flat and put them under the microscope.
The microscope has quite a lot of settings, I can look at my roots x10, x20, x40 or x100 as big as they really are. I usually use x20 for my work at the moment. I adjust the focus on the microscope so that the roots are really clear and then I use a computer and camera attached to the microscope to take a photo of the roots. The dye makes different parts of the roots look different colours which helps me work out which part is which.

If you want to see some of the pictures I get I think I included some in my profile