MICROSCOPES FOR RENT
Not always cheapest or best.
Brand-New, All metal microscope plus 100 Blister
Slides
ONLY $65.95. Better than renting.
Blister Microscope homepage
Those looking for an affordable way to acquire
a microscope might attempt to find microscopes for rent. The
Blister Microscope essentially makes renting unnecessary,
because for $65.95 you can buy the high quality Blister Microscope
and a set of 100 blister slides.
It’s easy to dismiss the Blister Microscope as nothing
more than a plaything, since it is a very simple mechanism
and its top compatible objective lens is only 100 power. However,
it is actually quite amazing how different the world is at
100 times its normal size. At this magnification, the plant
cell walls in a leaf become visible, demonstrating the reason
that trees are stiff. Compare walled in cells of a plant to
the free form cell membranes of a large amoeba or bacteria
cell, and the difference between plants and animals on the
microscopic level becomes clear.
Furthermore, prepared slides of plant stems are not only beautiful,
but also show in great detail how the vascular system in plants
works. Phloem, which transports sugars toward the leaves,
and xylem, which transports water, are clearly discernable
in stems at either 50 or 100 power. Even though these organs
are merely oddly shaped and positioned bundles of tubes made
from cell walls, this perspective provides a window into many
related fields. For example, an explanation of a magnified
stem would not be complete without learning where the sugar
and water goes, a perfect opportunity to talk about photosynthesis.
Also, it is hard not to think of the close parallels between
human and plant circulatory systems. Where plants have phloem,
humans have blood, and where we have hearts, plants have gravity
and concentration gradients. A magnified view can be extremely
helpful in sparking interest in the fascinating world of biology,
even if the object being looked at is “just a leaf.”
To order:
Phone: (612) 822-7937
Fax: (612) 824-7677
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