Microtechnique

I'll be taking an exciting crash course on plant microtechnique this summer. ie: learning to make microscope slides of plant tissues. Pretty slides, like this grouping from last year, source metioned later:

In order from top to bottom: a pollen grain sticking to the stigmatic surface of a Passiflora, Thistle stem cross-section, Iris petals in bud, Melilotus Ovule.
I'm looking forward to this course!

Here's the description of the course:
The Biological Imaging Facility at UC Berkeley offers during the first week of June a one-week workshop in Plant and Animal Microtechnique. The course covers paraffin sectioning and associated techniques using microwave techniques. This class is designed to familiarize the student with up-to-date methods in making microscope slides from specimen material for anatomical and molecular investigations. The more traditional techniques of paraffin embedding and histological staining are also covered. Alternating with laboratory exercises, lectures are presented covering the theoretical aspects of fixation and slide preparation, immunolocalization, and in situ hybridization.

Here's a website that tells you a little more about the course, the photos I mentioned, and general information on the state-of-the-art Biological Imaging Facility here on campus: http://microscopy.berkeley.edu/courses/microtech/index.html