| rightwingcrazy wrote: |
Must have been my imagination. That molecular biology prof had me totally duped. I was just a kid, after all. And the magnification reported on the TEM must have been faked. Either that, or I was looking at the world’s smallest bacteria, just nanometers wide. Really, I can’t convince you of what I routinely saw. But I choose to believe my lying eyes, and the work of my own hands. Apologies. |
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You made common mistakes - one that people experienced in TEM analysis wouldn't make. I called you out on it and so you changed your electron micrscope to TEM and aren't mentioning your microtome wouldn't work, it would have to be an ultra microtome. Those who worked the labs just don't confuse those pieces of equipment.
I accept your apologies.
Appreciated.
TEM = transmission electron microscope, IOW a type of electron microscope that examines the electrons that go through a specimen, distinguished from SEMs or REMs, say. That’s why you have to cut the specimens so thin, to allow the electrons to tunnel through. Ultramicrotomes are a subclass of microtomes, as their name implies. To insist otherwise is pedantic. Researchers experienced in the field aren’t like that, not the good ones.
It’s not nice to imply that I was lying. My career is not in the biological sciences; I was relating experiences at university, nearly 50 years ago. My memories fade, but they’re good enough. I’d be shocked if those tiny things that I was looking at were bacteria. They were too small, and their morphology was suggestive of a function, to inject genetic material into bacteria.
It's like a never ending comedy of pratfalls around here. Ignorance, the gift that keeps on giving. To wit:
"What are the 3 types of electron microscopes?"
"There are several different types of electron microscopes, including the transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and reflection electron microscope (REM.)
"The transmission electron microscope (TEM) is the original type of electron microscope, which directs a high voltage electron beam towards the specimen to illuminate it and create a magnified image of the sample." Aug 23, 2018
https://www.news-medical.net/life-sciences/Types-of-Electron-Microscopes.aspx