Recognizing and Preventing Artifacts in Microscopy: A Roundtable Discussion

摘要： In 1991 the Technologists’ Forum presented a symposium on artifacts in biological electron microscopy [1]. Since that time the topic has not been re-visited in our symposia, special topics or roundtable discussions. Artifacts are damage caused in specimen preparation and can be confused with specimen ultrastructure. Many artifacts are a result of mechanical or chemical action during sample preparation and some artifacts are due to irradiation by the electron beam during examination of the specimen in the microscope. Recognizing specimen damage is the initial step in preventing the same problem in future preparations and not reporting erroneous data.