ARCHIVE ISSUE: Micscape Magazine, exploring the miniature world

A key to the genera of rotifer Bdelloidea. Part 1 - Walter Dioni (Mexico) shares the first of a three part series on the biology and identification of this class of rotifer. (The author has shared the original French version on the Microscopies website.)

A scanning electron microscope in the dining room - Ted Kinsman (US) shares his experiences of running a 1982 SEM in a domestic environment, with overview of specimen preparation procedures and an image gallery.

S-glutamic acid - Robert Pavlis (USA) describes polar studies with this chemical which is readily available from e.g. food stores.

In Focus:
Nikon Small World Competition 2008 - as a prelude to the announcement of this year's winners on October 15th, Nikon have a fun 'Identify the Image Challenge' daily quiz where the subject of five winning images have to be guessed, the five images changing daily. A 'Popular Vote Contest' is also running showing all 115 winning images for readers to vote for their own favourites.

Reader's query - deep sea 'scales': Hugh Grenfell of Geomarine would appreciate any help identifying the nature of the 'scales' shown. Click images below to view larger. Hugh writes:
We have come across these strange calcareous "scales" (pics attached) in deep sea samples (914m) off the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. There is a large diversity of form (only 3 shown here). Would be great if anyone can shed some light on them!!

Chinese language editions of Micscape: We have received a request from the Chinese website 'Microimage' about the possibility of them translating and sharing a selection of Micscape articles in a regular downloadable Chinese 'Micscape' edition in pdf format. An English summary of their site is at: http://www.microimage.com.cn/englsh.html where they remark 'Microimage is the first professional website for microscopes and microscope imaging systems in China'. 'Microimage' already publish their own three monthly e-zine.

We are pleased at the opportunity for contributors' material to be shared to such a potentially large audience and help raise an awareness of enthusiast microscopy. Website traffic monitoring engines like Alexa suggest that China is now by far Microscopy-UK website's largest readership.

'Microimage' will be choosing a selection of past articles in liaison with us which they would be interested in sharing and contributor's will be contacted by the Micscape Editor for permission. The Micscape Editor would like to thank 'Microimage' staff for their interest and Tina, an Editor at 'Microimage', for liaison.