Weds January 21, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

Our first program of 2015 will be a hands-on forensics class entitled, The Forensic Science behind Locksmithing, Tool Marks under the Microscope by David G. Learn how a forensic expert understands and interprets how locking devices can be defeated. See and identify marks made by lock picking tools under the microscope.

Forensic locksmithing is the art of inspecting lock and key systems for evidence of attack. A form of specialized tool mark examination (similar to ballistics), forensic locksmithing provides a window into the specifics of many covert, non-destructive attacks performed on locks and keys that would otherwise be missed or overlooked by traditional crime-scene forensics. This will be a hands-on workshop involving learning about how locks works, common forms of non-destructive entry, microscopy, forensics-safe lock disassembly, and forensic inspection! For more information on the topic visit http://www.lockpickingforensics.com.

If possible, attendees should bring their own stereo scope, with illumination. If you don't have a stereo scope then you can share with one of the attendees who does. We will try and supply a number of extra instruments. Our speaker will supply the lock picking tools and the cylinders.

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Weds February 18, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville.Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

Our speaker for this month will be Gary W. Brown of the G.W. Brown Company from Waterloo, Nebraska. Mr. Brown will bring a number of digital cameras for evaluation and recommendation.  He will also share with the members a little about the library Microscope program and the newsletter he is publishing.  Along that line, he will discuss his training classes for professional microscope users such as medical lab personnel, veterinary technicians and other specific groups.  He has some recommendations on donating microscopes to schools and a new idea for the ideal field-portable microscope.  He will bring most of this together in a wonderful PowerPoint program. 

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Weds March 18, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This month our guest speaker will be Professor Brian Matsumoto from UCSB, giving a demonstration of the Tucsen recorder for photomicrography.

The majority of photomicrography cameras are designed to work with a computer. There are several advantages for doing this. For one, the computer’s monitor, mouse, and keyboard become the interface for controlling the camera. The computer display is the camera’s viewfinder and the computer keyboard provides control buttons for adjusting exposure. Data is saved to the computer’s hard drive. Equipping a microscope with this class of camera can be an expensive proposition since a computer is part of the purchase price for taking pictures. This can be especially expensive if one needs to equip several microscopes with individual cameras.

Tucsen has designed a recorder that provides an economical solution for equipping microscopes with cameras. All that is needed is an HD television. This provides a high resolution display of 1980 by 1020 pixels. The camera has a connection for a mouse and one can adjust exposure, color balance, and contrast by pointing and clicking the menu items displayed on the HD screen. Images or videos are saved to the camera’s SD card. If one needs advanced capabilities, the camera can be connected to a computer with a serial cable. The computer then serves to control the camera and it provides a smaller preview screen for evaluating focus and exposure. When photographs are taken, the images or movies are saved onto the computer’s hard drive. The capability to be used as either a computer-interface camera or as an independent camera makes this a highly versatile tool. The HDMI interface provides a sharp image on a 1920 x 1080 screen. These images are suitable for teaching or group discussions. 

Members will be given the opportunity to sit down and try out this wonderful new system for photomicrography. 

If time permits, the second half of our evening will be a brief presentation bringing us up to date on the DAWN Spacecraft and the discoveries acquired at its recent visit to the Protoplanet Vesta. 

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Weds April 15, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

We will begin this meeting with a very special story involving what is known as the "Lazareth effect".  This is when a rare species that was deemed extinct is brought back from the dead.  In the Tasman Sea off the coast of Australia on Lord Howe Island, lived one of the rarest creatures in the world, affectionately known as the Tree Lobster.  We will discover the history and biology of this fascinating species. 

For the main event of the evening, our speaker Brian Matsumoto, will continue with his instruction on cameras for photomicrography.  This evening we offer the opportunity for members to bring in there
favorite microscope slide so you can make high resolution photomicrographs.  If you wish to take your photo's home, you should also bring in a small thumb-drive. 

Brian will summarize what was presented last month and then provide a hands on workshop in the use of the new Tucsen HD microscope camera.  Tucsen has designed a recorder that provides an economical solution for equipping microscopes with cameras.  All that is needed is an HD television. This provides a high resolution display of 1980 by 1020 pixels. The camera has a connection for a mouse and one can adjust exposure, color balance, and contrast by pointing and clicking the menu items displayed on the HD screen. Images or videos are saved to the camera’s SD card.

If needed this camera can also be connected to a computer with a serial cable.  The computer then serves to control the camera and it provides a smaller preview screen for evaluating focus and exposure. When photographs are taken, the images or movies are saved onto the computer’s hard drive.  The HDMI interface provides a sharp image on a 1920 x 1080 screen, quite good for most scientific applications. 

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Weds May 20, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

The Pond Life program is undoubtedly one of our best attended and most exciting hands-on meetings! This is the event that you bring in your microscope (if you have one) and a samples of pond water obtained from your neighborhood: basically pond water, ditch water, puddles, fountain water or any other natural water samples. If you don’t have a pond source then just come and enjoy the collections brought in by others. We hope to have water samples from all over southern California. This is a fun, hands-on meeting, and one at which we'll hope to see new and exciting discoveries.

Suggested equipment list: water samples, microscopes, illuminators and pipettes and tools to play with the water samples. (Extra microscopes are always a good thing to bring for guests to use.)

If you have books or publications that identify Pond Life then do bring those along as well.

Check out the amoeba to the right, courtesy of www.micrographia.com.

Here's a video by Tom Jonesshowing pond water organisms filmed at the Microscopy Society of Southern California, May 2015, Pond Life Meeting in Santa Monica, CA. The specimen is lake water collected from Lake Gregory, in Crestline, CA., with a 20um pore size plankton net. Two different microscopes were used. The Rotifer is probably Synchaeta sp. and is shown in dark field using an Olympus BH-2, 1.67x projection eyepiece, DCD condenser, mag changer set at 2x, and a DPlan 20x objective. The second and third parts of the video show Stentor sp., also in dark field, using an Olympus SZH Research Stereo Microscope, DF Plan 1x objective, ILLD illuminator base set to dark field, SZH-PT phototube with a 1.67x projection eyepiece. Zoom magnification was set at 64x. A Tucsen TrueChrome II camera at 1080p was used for all parts of the video.

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Weds June 17, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This month our main speaker will be MSSC member, Larry McDavid.  Larry's interest in rare optical instruments takes him far beyond just the  microscope. Some will remember his splendid presentation on the Mars probe.  This Wednesday he will be introducing us to"The Dent Dipleidoscope, a Sundial By Another Name." 

The Dent Dipleidoscope was developed in 1843 to provide an accurate, low-cost means of setting mechanical clocks. It was extensively used throughout England to set railroad clocks and, because of its relatively low cost, was used on private estates as well. Its use continued until the early 1900's when time by telegraph became available. The dipleidoscope is a simple optical device that can resolve the instant of local solar noon within a few seconds of time. 

Larry will bring a common "Scroll Base" dipleidoscope but also a very rare "Dent Universal Dipleidoscope," a true museum-quality example of fine instrument making.  It will be impossible to demonstrate it in real time as our meeting will not be at noon, however, he will simulate what is normally seen at solar noon.  I highly recommend this meeting as Larry provides an excellent presentation that is well illustrated. 

If time permits, we will also be honored to have MSSC officer, Alan deHaas, share with us one of his vignettes on microscopy. 

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Weds July 15, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville.Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This month our speaker will be Prof. Elliot Botvinick, Ph.D. of the Beckman Laser Institute/Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, UCI, Irvine, speaking about Optical Tweezers. See his abstract below:

My research program has two areas of focus, one in mechanobiology and the other in medical device development. My laboratory innovates fun and useful experimental techniques for quantitative biophysical measurements towards the study of mechanobiology. I will be discussing our studies that utilize the technique of Optical Tweezers to study roles for physical forces in cell signaling and regulation.  In particular, we use optical tweezers to measure single receptor-ligand interactions and have recently published two papers offering strong evidence for the role of ligand-endocytic forces in the activation of the Notch receptor. We also use optical tweezers to measure local continuum viscoelastic parameters in order to seek correlates between microenvironment mechanics and cell function. We have applied these tools to test mechanical hypotheses in the areas of cancer biology, microvascular morphogenesis, tissue engineering, stem cell biology and the transition of ductal carcinoma in situ into the invasive phenotype.

For the second part of the meeting, MSSC's Larry McDavid will provide a summary of his data on the new Eneloop battery cells.  This information is of great value to members who need the use of rechargeable power cells in digital imaging technology.  There has been a remarkable improvement in this technology and Larry will bring us up to speed. 

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Weds, August 19, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This month our speaker will be Dr. John Wang, Professor of Forensic Science, CSULB, speaking about New Microscopic Technology and Forensic Investigation. In recent years many new microscopic techniques have been developed for the area of forensic investigation, providing faster and more reliable examination at the scene and in the lab.  Most importantly, portability, digitalbility and quantity have become the three criteria to guide microscopic examination in forensic sciences.  This presentation will discuss these new breakthroughs with a live demonstration.  Also, limitations with some of the examination will be addressed.  Finally, some new ideas for potential joint research projects will be proposed.

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Weds, September 16, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This month our speaker will be Katherine T. Faber, Simon Ramo Professor of Materials Science, Caltech a presentation titled, "Watching Paint Dry and Colors Fade: The Intersection
of Art and Science." Mysteries regarding museum objects have captured the imagination of engineers and scientists alike. Chemists have brought new analytical tools to discern especially hard-to-identify pigments, which helped explain why a dramatic sky disappeared from Winslow Homer’s For to be a Farmer’s Boy. Materials scientists have confirmed the provenance of Meissen ceramics. Computer scientists discern the painting below the painting in Matisse's Bathers by a River. Faber’s lecture will examine the science behind these and other object-based studies, and discuss the links among science, engineering,
and art, which build bridges between universities and museums.

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Weds October 21, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This will be the annual Trade and Sales meeting. Bring microscope related equipment and supplies to sell or trade. Or just come and see if there is something on the tables that you have been looking for or something you just must have.  

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Weds November 18, 2015 at 7:00pm, Wildwood School in West LA, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles 90064 (map). Access is on Mississippi (one block north of Olympic) between Westgate and Grandville. Enter the alleyway between Westgate and Grandville on Mississippi and there is covered parking.

This is the annual Exhibition Meeting of the Society. This is one of the best events of the year and is a great deal of fun. Each member is encouraged to bring along an exhibit to share. Anything associated with microscopic subjects is welcome. Your exhibit could be simple, for example you could set up your microscope with your favorite slide. A projector will be provided for those bringing 35mm slides. Posters and display boards are also encouraged, along with the usual sales table. Please remember to bring a label or piece of paper with a brief description of your exhibit.

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No December meeting, instead the MSSC Holiday Banquet, Earth, Wind and Flour Restaurant, December 13, 2015, 5 - 9 pm

Come and celebrate the completion of another wonderful year with fellow MSSC members. Dinner cost $10-20, bring cash. All members and their guests welcome.

RSVPs to MSSC President required.

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