Siliceous and Delicious

Came in this morning to find the epoxy in my latest attempt at slide-making had indeed cured, but that there were also bubbles. Just as many as when heat-curing. Rats! Spent a fair bit of time trawling the interwebs, trying to find any information I could about how to add stuff to Epo-Tek 301 epoxy without making bubbles. I could find almost nothing of any use, although I am beginning to suspect that it’s the water in which the fluorescein salt is dissolved that’s the source of the problem. Perhaps trying to use fluorescein in methanol will lead to happier results?

I futzed about in the lab for a bit and tried to prepare a slide using epoxy mixed with fluorescein in methanol, but I saw bubbles forming immediately upon placing the cover slip on the slide. I thought, why not try the lead weights lying around next to the scales? I’d always been concerned that they would just crush the fossils between coverslip and slide, but given the desperation of the moment I figured I’d try it anyway. The result: I glued the lead weight to the coverslip. And there were bubbles in the epoxy anyway. Woohoo.

In the meantime, the epoxy had started to harden a little. I thought I’d try making one more slide with that epoxy, on the off-chance that waiting time had something to do with it. It didn’t seem to make a difference. Putting a weight on it made the epoxy squeeze out all over the place, but there were still bubbles nonetheless.

Then another incredibly frustrating time on the CLSM. Evangelos informs me that, in all likelihood, the facility will be dismantled after his departure. Fuck.