Microscopy: Attached to the Artifact Hats

Research microscopy has a beautiful-image problem: sometimes the thing you want to frame is an artifact. In one microscopy discussion, contributors identified intriguing structures as bubbles or water drops, then admired the artifacts anyway. These microscopy hats make room for that affection, from the CELLFIE-OBSESSED MICROSCOPIST badge to the grand announcement of a microscope discovery followed by the small-print confession: dust. The technical vocabulary supplies its own emotional damage. Nikon defines lateral resolution as the minimum distinguishable distance between image features; it describes photobleaching as a permanent change that prevents a fluorophore from fluorescing. I PHOTOBLEACH EVERYTHING I LOVE takes that real loss of fluorescence personally. The focus-issues line gives the operator their own optical problem, while the software question draws on a researcher's exasperated complaint about who designs microscope software. Confocal devotion has its own register, too: researchers in the supplied discussions praise the images and even the instrument sounds. The 2014 Chemistry Nobel honored Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner for super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, so the enthusiasm has distinguished company. Choose a straightforward MICROSCOPIST or MICROSCOPY identity badge, or wear the more questionable discovery. Every design is custom embroidered on a dad hat. The dust and photobleaching jokes each come in two colorways, for researchers whose attachment survives the troubleshooting.