Protoslow and 7-up
Bryan Bishop
I just learned about a viscous substance called "protoslow". It's used
for slowing down protists under the microscope. I haven't tried it
yet, though I have seen something a bit simpler to make than
protoslow: boiled agar.
http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/bioforum/1994-March/008315.html
"""
Try this. Get ahold of some agar, either bacteriological grade stuff
from the lab or cooking
grade from the oriental food counter. Plain agar, no bacterial food
or nasty fluorescent Kool-
Aid colors :-). Agarose is even better if you can get it.
Boil up about a 1% solution, and dispense a drop on a
slide. While it's cooling, make a shallow well in the center with a
Pasteur pipette or similar
instrument. When the agar has gelled, add a drop of your cells and a coverslip.
Protozoa in the well will swim normally. Those outside the well might
be crushed. Those
between will be nicely pinned.
The method takes some trial and error (agar concentration, amount of
water, depth of well), but
when it works, which is lots more often than any other method, it's
gorgeous. Pro protist
photographers can't be wrong ...
good luck!
Charley O'Kelly
Mad Protistologist
okellyc at bch.umontreal.ca
"""
Not sure if I've ever met a "mad protistologist" before. Here's
another neat trick.
"""
In my undergrad. zoology lab long ago we added 7-Up to slow down marine
invertebrates. Essentially they are a bit oxygen starved from all the
CO2. Nicotine would cause larger organisms, such as chitons, to curl
and distort.
Glen MacDonald
Virginia Bloedel Hearing Research Center
Box 35-7923
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7923
(206) 616-4156
gle...@u.washington.edu
"""
Any other tricks?