Bright-held microscopy

In a conventional bright-held optical microscope, the source of this light is usually an incandescent or halogen lightbulb positioned direcdy below the specimen to be examined. Bright-held microscopy is useful for observing specimens that are either... 

GUVs can be observed with bright-held microscopy, although they are difficult to see because the single bilayer is only about 6 nm thick. Visualization can be greatly enhanced by the use of either phase contrast or DIG (differential interference contrast) microscopy or fluorescence microscopy if a fluorescent molecule probe can be incorporated into the lipid bilayer. 

There are several types of optical microscopy that can be used to study the dynamics and the structure of colloidal suspensions. Bright-held microscopy is perhaps the simplest, with light focused onto the sample and an objective lens on the other side collecting the light. In bright-held microscopy, the image quality can be determined by the sample itself. Variations in refractive index of the components of the colloidal suspension can also inhuence the image quality of the sample. 

Figure 3.19 Bright-held images of aluminum alloy. The contrast difference between (a) and (b) is generated by tilting the specimen. Individual grains are marked with numbers. (Reproduced with permission from M. von Heimandahl, Electron Microscopy of Materials, Academic Press, New York. 1980 Elsevier B. V.)...

Figure 30 Fibrous scaffolds produced by Kres et al. through incubation of the designed peptides with metal, (a) With Zn(II) (b) With Cu(n) (c) With Co(II) (d) With Ni(II) (e) A bright-held image of the network when the biotin-labeled peptide is incorporated and bound to fluorescently labeled streptavidin (f) A fluorescence microscopy image of (e). (Scale bars in images (a-d) = 5 tm and (e, f) = 200 pm.) (Reproduced from Ref. 94. Wiley-VCH, 2009.)...

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