Re: Move to synthetic materials (from versatile surfactant_

Martin Angerman wrote:
> Agar is a carbohydrate--kind of like a specialized starch. (...)
> It's available in many grades of refinement (look it up in VWR or Sigma).
>

Better search in Asian food stores (agar is used a lot in food as well).
For alt-photo purposes, the grades offered by Sigma at least are way too
expensive (over $200/kg for the cheapest grades, at least here in
Europe). As far as I know, VWR charges even more. Unless you really need
this kind of purity, the food grades should do fine, at least for the
initial tests.
I have only limited experience with agar (as a temporary embedding
medium for histological purposes; it's main scientific application,
however, is in growing media for bacteria and molds). However, I believe
significant changes would have to be made from gelatin protocols. I'm
not sure agar would be very suitable, but I may be wrong. If someone has
the time, it is certainly worth testing.

Best regards,

Tom Einar Andersen
Received on Mon Jan 17 21:15:16 2005