10/10/97
water clear, resin for emmbedding some small objects (1-2 cm x 2 mm
neoperene O-rings) for gifts as paper weights. Therefore
sectionablity or LM / EM is not a factor but durability and hardness
are - they would like "nice and hard" resin.
I realize that this is not a strickly scientific quiry - and I
apologize to anyone offended by any triviality - but why not ask the
experts, eh? After who among us hasn't emmbedded a cockroach, etc.
and kept it on their desk?
Commercial vendors should feel free to respond.
Richard E. Edelmann, Ph.D.
Electron Microscopy Facility Supervisor
352 Pearson Hall
Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056
Ph: 513.529.5712 Fax: 513.529.4243
E-mail: edelmare@muohio.edu
Back in the 1950s, the standard embedding medium for biological EM was a
mixture of methyl and n-butyl methacrylates (~1:9), catalyzed with 2%
Luperco CDB, and polymerized at 60oC (or by UV). That material (otherwise
known as "plexiglass") was very clear and hard, and would satisfy your
criteria. In fact, about 1958 I embedded a ~3.5" cockroach in
methacrylate. I had encountered it in the hallway outside our lab (it
looked like an approaching Volkswagen "beetle"). It was an escapee from
another lab that was doing research on the nervous system of such
critters.
Kent
A. Kent Christensen
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Medical Sciences II Building
University of Michigan Medical School
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0616
akc@umich.edu
Tel (313) 763-1287
http://www.umich.edu/~akc/
The nicest clear resin I have seen is one the geologists use called:
transoptic.
It is a hot-press resin that comes up hard and clear and in good contact with
the material. I don't know any details of where to get it.
Mary Mager