Nothing particularly exciting goes on in my world during the week anymore. For the last few weeks, I've started using the resin microtome to cut thin (500nm) resin sections.
Now, I've tried describing what various microtomes and the cryostat are like. My best effort to the average person is that it's a ham slicer in a freezer (cryostat) or a ham slicer with a microscope attached (resin microtome). Now, when I first started using the cryostat, I will admit to not liking him very much after the ease of the paraffin microtome, but we came to an understanding and I could probably now be described as a *gun* on it. My rate of sectioning is about one block/30 mins now :D
Things are a little different on the resin ham slicer. It takes soooooooooo long to line up a block, I'm currently averaging two-three hours/block. The problem is that because you need your block to be in a certain condition before you (should) start picking up sections it just takes ages to trim to the right surface. I'm not happy with Mike the Ham Slicer. Not at all. He won't be dislodging Pascal anytime soon.
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