The next meeting of the Parramatta Hills Group of the Australian Plants Society will be held on Saturday 28 November at 2pm.

The speaker will be one of our members, James Indsto, who is a forensic botanist. He will be giving a demonstration of techniques to create artistic images from plant material using a microscope. There will also be an opportunity for audience members to experiment with some of these techniques.

The meeting will be held at the Group’s new venue The West Pennant Hills Community Church at 41-43 Eaton Rd, West Pennant Hills.

The meeting will be followed by afternoon tea and plant sales.

All are welcome to attend.

Artistic Microscopy: Where Art Meets Science

A presentation by James Indsto

Microscopes are often to be found in laboratories and are used for serious scientific pursuits. But what happens when scientists come out to play? Microscopes can reveal the beauty of the miniature world, which can be admired as much for its aesthetic value as scientific value. Microscopy can also be a rewarding hobby.

Unstained plant material is nearly colourless with standard microscope illumination. Here a section of young olive stem has been stained with toluidine blue dye to reveal many different cell types and detailed structure.

Potato starch grains are almost invisible with normal transmitted illumination, but show a spectacular ‘Maltese Cross’ pattern under polarized light. The addition of a piece of cellophane in the light path makes an improvised ‘wave plate’, creating beautiful colours and additional detail.

Crystals can form beautiful patterns. In this case ‘BALG’, a mixture of the amino acids Beta Alanine and L-Glutamine form dreamy curves when crystallised on a microscope slide. The addition of a small piece of cellophane results in an image that explodes with colour!

Location of West Pennant Hills Community Church