Fluorescence Microscopy – Get the know-how

Fluorescence Microscopy

Are you tired of peeking into the colourless, stereotypic and dull world of microscope? Wouldn’t it be out-of-the-box to view things in colour? Looking forward to spice up your research work? Explore the tiny world in the neon colours of light. Get your hands on the florescence microscopy and go green, blue or grey- the choice is totally yours, dear reader!

Are you wondering how any of these work? There’s no magic. It is just the simple manipulation of human eyes. The object under observation is made to illuminate in the presence of the light of a specific wavelength. Flouro phores absorb the monochromatic light and emits the light of longer wavelength. From xenon arc lamp to excitation filter, dichroic mirror to emission filter, radar to ultra-efficient source like laser, you have a long list to choose from! While you read this, you’d be surprised to know that you’re just one step away from this incredible venture. Besides being interesting, the view of the image is like an eye candy.  While this is enough food for thought, go and give it a try! The deeper you go into this field, the more are the chances of exploring new avenues.

Epifluorescence makes great deal of application in the life sciences, where the light is focused on the specimen via the objective lens. The light detector takes care of the light that is re-emitted from the specimen. Useless frequency is truncated using a filter in the lieu of reducing distortion. The perquisites of this fluorescence microscopy is beyond imagination. Redefine yourself as a homicide detective or as the whistle blower of the god’s particle. On a familiar note, how would know if a cell is living or dead? Does the question what genetic material would have gone in the making of DNA or RNA baffles you? Are you curious about knowing how the world started and how will it end? You just need a kick-start. Buckle up and don yourself the researcher that you aim or claim to be!

The sole agenda of this microscopy is to throw some light on the cases that demands the shade behaviour. Many catalysts are deemed appropriate for this task force. Several nucleic acid stains like DAPI and Hoechst have made it their business to bind a biological molecule of our interest. DRAQ5 and DRAQ7 can bind furrows of the human DNA.  UV light triggers the sample in the former case while red light triggers the later one. 

While we boast of some of the hallmark features of fluorescence, the photo bleaching appears as the uninvited guest to the green world of colors! If we go through the insight of photo bleaching, we’d find that this occurs due to the accumulation of electron damage from the electrons excited during the nascent stage. Robust fluorescence can be quick solution to your dilemma! It minimizes the risk of illumination during fluorescence and maximizes accuracy.

Are you ready to make a difference? Folks, now is the time to flip sides!