For someone who loves microscopy and is a fan of documentaries I think this a fantastic idea. I can imagine watching a two or three part ‘Modern Marvels’ type series on the History Channel or the National Geographic. I am a big fan of the ‘Modern Marvels’ series and Microscopy is perfect for it. They have really nice way of discussing a topic where they start off with the history of the topic, its evolution, then discuss the present day state of affairs, applications and then go on to discuss the cutting edge and future research about that particular topic. Microscopy has all the elements and more, such a series can definitely include all aspects of Microscopy, optical, electron, AFM etc. Wonder why networks like these or Nova/PBS haven’t already looked into this topic?
Regards,
Neeraj.
Neeraj V. Gohad, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow,
Okeanos Research Group
Department of Biological Sciences
132 Long Hall,Clemson University
Clemson, SC-29634
864-656-3597
From: Confocal Microscopy List [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of John Oreopoulos
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 2:33 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: A microscopy documentary
The point of a documentary like this would not be to have a "how to" guide to microscopy. It's would be more a history and an account of the most recent advances. Sure, you can show Kohler illumination and why this is useful, but a step by step guide for techniques is not needed. That would be useful for another set of videos. I would refer people to JOVE (Journal of visualized experiments) for "how to" videos (this is peer reviewed and would recommend that if you have a unique way of doing something you should submit a video to this "journal"):
I'm still thinking that a proper microscopy documentary would be modeled around Carl Sagan's Cosmos series which was sort of a history of astronomy for the lay person, explaining our place in the universe and the significance of various astronomical discoveries in the past, how the implications of these discoveries changed our thinking, etc. The same must be true of the world of the very small, the world that the microscope reveals to us. Probably the best thing to do would be to put together a list of important people in the history of microscopy and important discoveries made with microscopes that changed the world in some way or had a big impact. This need not be limited to optical microscopy; EM, AFM, etc. should all be included as well.
On 10-Mar-09, at 2:09 PM, Carl Boswell wrote:
That reminds me of a professor I knew who taught Pathology to med students. One day, to wake up the audience and emphasize a point, he fired off a starter's pistol. Needless to say, he got everyone's attention. When it came time for the next exam, the answer many students gave for the question pertaining to that "exciting" portion of the lecture was that a gun was fired. My point is, would anyone remember how to align the condensor, or just hum the tune?
Carl A. Boswell, Ph.D.
Molecular and Cellular Biology
University of Arizona
520-954-7053
FAX 520-621-3709
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 1:20 AM
Subject: Re: A microscopy documentary
We should make a musical. Anybody got any talent? Imagine a big Broadway number that explains Kohler illumination. John.
Jeffrey L. Travis wrote:
The closest thing to a microscopy documentary I can recall is the Saturday Night Live segment of "Leonard Pinth-Garnell's Bad Musicals" which featured a musical based on the life of Leewenhoek. This sketch originally aired on December 10, 1977. A synopsis can be found here:
http://snlarc.jt.org/detail.php?i=1977121010
The musical, as I recall, was proclaimed by Pinth-Garnell to be "simply terrible."
--
(Sent from my cra%#y non-Blackberry electronic device that still has wires)
*********************************
John Runions, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
OX3 0BP
email: [hidden email]
phone: +44 (0) 1865 483 964