Excerpt: This is now becoming a good habit and marks the second year that The Microscope reports on all of the Inter/Micro happenings in the second-quarter issue of this quarterly journal. This can't happen without the hard work and dedication of the presenting and contributing authors and a full Inter/Micro program in the spring each year, and not without all of the microscopists from far and wide that come together to make this the microscopy meeting of all meetings...for the past 77 years.

Many of you in the microscopy community may know by now about the passing of one of the greatest modern-day microscopists. The one who I, at the beginning and most formative time in my career, had the privilege of learning from and teaching with for many years before his retirement from McCrone Research Institute in 1999. John G. Delly, scientist, author, writer, and true Renaissance man, passed away on April 21, 2024. He was 89.

Drywall (wallboard, plasterboard, gypsum board) became the common construction material for interior walls in buildings in the later 1940s. Joint compound (mud, spackling, taping compound, joint treatment material) and patching products such as spackle or spackling were used to seal the seams between the boards and cover cracks and nail indentations. Most joint compounds from the 1940s into the later 1970s contained chrysotile asbestos in various formulations. Analyses by microscopy determined the chrysotile asbestos content of samples of Bondex, Georgia-Pacific, and Reardon products to be 1–5%, 3–8%, and 1–2% asbestos, respectively. Information compiled from several sources, including corporate responses to the U.S. EPA Asbestos Information Act of 1988 and other documents, suggest that asbestos-containing joint compounds and patching products from the 1930s into the late 1970s contained chrysotile in the range of 0.5% to 23%, with one company having a few formulations with asbestos levels as high as 45.2%. Although there were no documents showing that amphibole asbestos was intentionally added to joint compounds, there is some evidence of amphibole asbestos fibers in certain joint compound products, probably as accessory minerals with added chrysotile, talc, or limestone. No amphibole asbestos fibers were found in a Georgia-Pacific joint compound product tested using the acid/base digestion preparation procedure. During simulation testing, the asbestos level in the breathing zone of a worker during the mixing of Bondex Joint Compound ranged from 6.9 to 12 asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of air (F/cc) (phase contrast microscopy modified by transmission light microscopy). The level was below detection during application. During sanding, the asbestos level in the breathing zone of the worker ranged from 1.9 to 5.5 asbestos F/cc. The simulations showed results that were within the ranges reported in the scientific literature for airborne asbestos levels caused by dry mixing and sanding of asbestos-containing joint compound. The sale of joint compound and spackling sold for consumer use with intentionally added asbestos was banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1977.

Beside the high-tech gadgetry in today’s laboratory reside the basic stains, reagents, and microscopical techniques that date back to more than a century — and remain essential. The history of microscopy is often seen as a specialist subject, and one that doesn’t influence us working in today’s busy modern laboratories. But the history is closer than you think. Look around you. Many of those stains that you take for granted are ancient history. Those computers we use, our mobile phones, the digital equipment, and all that glass and plastic gadgetry are new (indeed, by the time you’ve purchased and installed them, they are already out-of-date). But not the essential stains and reagents. Many have unexpected origins, and some of them tell extraordinary tales.

Antony van Leeuwenhoek's handmade microscopes -- those simple, single-lens instruments small enough to rest in the palm of your hand -- continue to intrigue and fetch large sums at auction. The Dutch microbiologist is known to have left 247 microscopes when he died in 1723. And now, one more has surfaced.

McCrone Research Institute in Chicago was pleased to hold the Inter/Micro international microscopy conference again on Sept. 20 – 23, 2022, after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This 72nd annual gathering of professional and amateur microscopists featured research talks on the first two days, covering advancements in instrumentation, new techniques, and practical applications in various fields of microscopy and microanalysis. Speakers focused on light microscopy, SEM, TEM, EDS, microspectrophotometry, electron backscatter diffraction, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry, μ-Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, microchemistry, forensic trace evidence, and materials analysis.

Can we alter our sexuality with a knife and a few chemicals? A sectioned rat fetus reminds us how we all truly began: as multicellular organisms with their own hard-wired identity. My favorite slide is a rat fetus I sectioned as a student. This is such a revealing preparation. Everyone likes it — and everybody (absolutely everybody) points out its penis. The penis indicates at once that this is a male fetus — or at least, it did until recently. Now, transsexuals who are women but are desperate to be men, can have one created by a surgeon. Or can they? Of course not. You can no more fashion a fully functioning penis out of tissue than you can make a line-caught cod out of a tall tub of taramasalata. Men invading a women’s racetrack or the privacy of their changing room are ineradicably men, no matter what tablets they take. It is the microscope which proves the point.

Excerpt: As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic and its socioeconomic impact have caused disruptions in many business operations, especially those of not-for-profits, independent research and higher-learning institutions, and publishers like McCrone Research Institute. Many people, including the staff of Microscope Publications, have been working remotely under government stay-at-home orders. This situation has drastically affected the publishing workflow of The Microscope journal, and distribution of Vol. 68, No. 1 (2020) has been severely delayed. We apologize for this disruption but are pleased to present this issue to you as an online edition.

Excerpt: We are happy to present this latest edition of The Microscope as a full 96-page double issue, Volume 68, Third/Fourth Quarter 2020. It was an absolute necessity to combine two issues, as all of our operations — educational, research, symposia, and publications — were either canceled, postponed, or suspended for the first half of 2021 and the prior year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To say this has been a rough patch for all would be an understatement, though I am glad we are here to write about it, while looking ahead to a favorable future.

The Microscope published selected monographs from McCrone Research Institute’s recently completed research, New Microcrystal Tests for Controlled Drugs, Diverted Pharmaceuticals, and Bath Salts (Synthetic Cathinones), which contains newly developed microcrystal tests and reagents for 9 drugs: alprazolam, butylone, mephedrone, methylone, MDPV, 4-MEC, alpha-PVP, tramadol, and zolpidem. This article includes the monographs for the following drugs and reagents: • alprazolam: gold bromide with hydrochloric acid • alprazolam: gold bromide with sulfuric acid and acetic acid • butylone: palladium chloride with hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid • butylone: platinum bromide with sulfuric acid