Lab equipment love #2

Continuing this week with some of my favourite things in the lab... Like my first selection, this is something that is basic but absolutely fundamental.

A good stereo dissecting microscope, with a mount for a camera.

Edward Tufte often argues that much of science is the story of increasing resolving power. The classic example was the telescope, which was celebrated in the last year’s 400^th anniversary celebration of Galileo using the device for such great effect. Microscopes came slightly later, but also revolutionized thinking about the world.

When I bought this microscope, I bought a camera lucida for drawing pictures, something I’d use through much of doctoral and post-doctoral work. A good drawing could provide more information more efficiently than using 35 mm film then. I have rarely used it, since digital photography had made it faster and more efficient to take a lot of photographs and work with those.