Learning more from new diatom photos

Examining my diatom slides about two weeks after they were made, I found that the mounting medium had continued to evaporate toluene from under the cover slip, making much of the material on the slides get compressed into little bubbled areas. You can still see great details but the diatoms are crowded on top of each other, and there are strange air-bubbly spaces in between the remaining viewing areas. The same thing happens with a wet-mounted cover slip, only much faster!

I will start making a new set of slides today using a couple of tricks that I think will let me avoid this problem. And of course, you will see photos of the results here in a few days!