Question

How will you prepare the slide without drying quickly?

Answer 1

Hint: A Slide is a flat rectangular, transparent piece of glass on which specimens can be mounted for microscopic study of living or dead cells of organisms. Cover slip is a small and thin piece of glass which is used to cover the specimen on a slide.

Complete answer:
There are following steps in the preparation of the slides:
• The first step in this process is to place the fluid (water, glycerine) in the center of the slide.
• Place the specimen on the liquid using tweezers.
• After placing the specimen on the slide, a cover slip is used to cover the specimen for study under the microscope.
• Cover slip is placed on a slide at an angle of 45° to prevent the air bubbles in the slide.
• After this, remove the excess water with the paper and the slide is ready to observe under the microscope.

To prevent the slide from drying, we can use some methods:
• The sides of the cover glass should be sealed with the thick layer of Vaseline.
• Glycerine can also be used to seal the cover glass.
• Petroleum jelly is used to prevent the evaporation of liquid from the edges of the slide.

Note: There are two ways to make slides for the study of living or dead organisms: Wet mount slides and dry mount slides. Wet mount slides are used for living, aquatic samples. Dry mount slides are used for dead and simple samples. The size of the specimen doesn’t matter for the low power microscope (dissection microscope) but in case of electron microscope the specimen needs to be thin and flat.