Hi Stan,

I take your point about the huge difference between them but I don't get why you call it the sublime and the ridiculous?

The bamboo thing is sublime as it fulfills a purpose nothing else can certainly not for the money. Education is the only way out of their impoverished condition, with the help of some change in thinking from the industries that benefit from the cheap labor and what have you not.

The ridiculous is somewhat harsh in my mind. Many good things have come from the s.e.m. and not all discoveries with the use of the s.e.m. were turned into "bad science". Think of cancer research which would not have made the progress it has done the last 10 years were it not for the s.e.m.

I think this new system might make the next jump in that research a much more concrete possibility. Improvements by stepping 50 years back in time are not a good option, we need to manage the technologies and benefit from them.

On your question which I would rather have, I would like to play with both to be honest. Using something that simple just puts you in touch with the first ever person that build one all those centuries ago. Same with a telescope, just imagine what it did to these people to see something that nobody ever saw before not to think of how to convince people that what they see through the thing is real.

Same for the o.h.i.m., it will undoubtedly open up whole new fields of technologies and to be part of that can be very exiting. I doubt if I will ever see this piece of kit though, at a few million in any currency for one of those I will never get the chance. The bamboo thing sounds much more within my budget.

If you or I bought one, they would just be for playing with and yes, they would be a white elephant. Where they are now they are in their right place and certainly neither is a white elephant.

"I take your point about the huge difference between them but I don't get why you call it the sublime and the ridiculous?"

I probably latched on the two extremes to catch you attention. We could argue the fine points of how many people will reap benefits vs. costs of each version of a microscope.

The bamboo version is cheap to manufacture. Don't have any information as to the lens used. Probably made elsewhere in a local shop specializing in lenses for less. Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek is credited with the first (optical, light) microscope with a single lens. Easy to make a replica, instructions on web.

On the other hand the ORION Helium Ion Microscope is complicated many times over and was arrived at by way of many stages of development.

Perhaps it should have been "From the Very Simplest to A Very Complex, Microscope."

An opportunity to learn the techniques of use and actual use the Orion H.I.M. would be a fantastic learning experience.

Ok I understand that now. Thought wrongly that you realy meant what I read in it which is clearly not what you thought you said

Did you know that Leeuwenhoek, my fellow countryman, came up with the idea of the lens through observing a drop of water? Obviously very obscured due to a large amount of time and many scolars interpretations but that is what I was thought as a kid in the Netherlands.

Also note worthy is the confusion about his name. He was born as Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a very dutch sounding name. Later as he became more involved with science, the name often changed for what was perceived a better name for a scientist, almost more believeable or something. The Thonis, Anthonius or Thonius was part of that thinking as well as the Philipszoon which actually means son of Philips. I am not sure but that tells me that maybe his father was called Philip as that is often done in dutch names. I believe his father was a basket weaver by trade which gave Anton his skills with balsa wood which in turn came handy when he made his own fisrt microscope.

just some of his names through times below. Some clearly influenced by language variations such as English

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Antony van Leeuwenhook, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Anthony Leeuwenhoek, Antony Leeuwenhoek, Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, Leeuwenhoek, Van Leeuwenhoek, Antonius van Leeuwenhoek, Thonis Philipszoon, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, A. van Leeuwenhoek, Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek

IL take one of each ..... but i only wanna pay for the bamboo one.

Hmmm. I'd say...Both! Anything that gets the ol' grey matter churning, causes discussion or rocks the boat. You never know what can come out of it!