Tag: references

Mar112011March 11, 2011March 11, 20111Commentby L.

Laser pointers and quantum mechanics

Posted in Hardware

Laser pointers are handy sources…

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Dec212010December 21, 2010December 20, 20100Commentby L.

Pubmed limbo

Posted in Uncategorized

In my experience, PubMed works beautifully the vast majority of the time. It does an excellent job parsing search terms and they’re always adding new features (e.g., you can search using full…

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Nov232010November 23, 2010November 21, 20102Commentsby L.

Laser safety

Posted in Tips

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Nov072010November 7, 2010November 8, 20104Commentsby L.

Fiber optic termination

Posted in Tips

Fiber optics must be terminated properly in order to permit high transmission. If you’re making your own, get a proper fiber cleaver and a set of polishing sheets. Here are…

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Oct192010October 19, 2010March 27, 201215Commentsby L.

Two-Photon Cross Sections

Posted in Tips

It’s difficult to track down 2p absorption cross sections for dyes and proteins. Doing it right requires…

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Oct012010October 1, 2010October 5, 20100Commentby L.

RSS feeds for any web page

Posted in Tips

I follow quite a number of RSS feeds, but there are some news sites that don’t have them. In order to keep up to date, use Page2RSS.

For example, if Nature Neuroscience didn’t have an RSS feed for their Advanced Online…

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Aug172010August 17, 2010August 16, 20101Commentby L.

Troubleshooting Fluorescence Microscopy

Posted in Tips

Jim Pawley upgraded the 39 Steps from a simple MacGuffin to a classic checklist for troubleshooting fluorescent microscopy images. Now 10 years old, it remains very relevant. It covers thirty-nine different parameters…

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Jul272010July 27, 2010July 27, 20101Commentby L.

Street fighting mathematics

Posted in Tips

Physicists have a very unsentimental way of manhandling mathematics. In addition to setting up dimensionally inconsistent equations for order-of-magnitude estimations, they like to take lots of short cuts that make computations fast and…

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Jul012010July 1, 2010July 1, 20107Commentsby L.

Catalogs as textbooks

Posted in Tips

Many manufacturers distribute catalogs that include extensive tutorial sections. You could really teach a pretty extensive engineering course on optics using nothing more than the front pages of the CVI Melles Griot catalog. In this post I’ll point you to some of…

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