I ran across this from an email I got from Olympus.

[flamin lib]

The Art of Science: Olympus Launches Second Global Image of the Year Award

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/09/15/2094094/0/en/The-Art-of-Science-Olympus-Launches-Second-Global-Image-of-the-Year-Award.html

Not your run of the mill photo contest.

Past winners:

https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/landing/ioty-2019/

Crystalized amino acid

?rev=B96D


And then I found THIS!

https://www.foldscope.com/

You can outfit a whole classroom with microscopes for $65!

[hunter]

1. When I was teaching science we had a class set of microscopes...

... that had been funded during the Sputnik / Cold War panic.

Suddenly "the public" recognized science education was important.

Sputnik also contributed directly to a new emphasis on science and technology in American schools. With a sense of urgency, Congress enacted the 1958 National Defense Education Act, which provided low-interest loans for college tuition to students majoring in math and science. After the launch of Sputnik, a poll conducted and published by the University of Michigan showed that 26% of Americans surveyed thought that Russian sciences and engineering were superior to that of the United States. (A year later, however, that figure had dropped to 10% as the U.S. began launching its own satellites into space.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1

By the Reagan era setting up microscope labs was a nightmare. Other science teachers simply didn't do it. Many of the school's twenty five year old microscopes were missing parts, were dirty, or were otherwise not functional. I did it once. I reverted to setting up a few microscopes with interesting specimens, same as the other teachers.

My wife and I were both science teachers, my wife's sister is still teaching science. She is some kind of saint.

Science teachers are expected to teach labs but the funding is miserable, less than $2.00 per student per semester.

Most teachers end up paying for supplies out of their own pockets. Managing a good science lab requires a lot of creativity.

Foldscopes are still beyond their budgets.

I didn't mean to make this a political post, but Republicans hate science education. The Republicans are the party of selfish wealthy people and anti-intellectual bigots.

-- rant over --

Thank you for the wonderful links! We live in an amazing world.

[sl8]

2. At first, I thought you were talking about those dumb memes that Zeus has been sending everyone.

Yours is much better.

Thanks for posting.