heaven!! (...
... look away while I beam a little ... and dance a little...)
This is just the kind of process-building that fills me with joy. So, 500x or higher I will go, at the most accessible price, with some great alternative over-the-counter acids to try out, and some experimenting with how to best get cells to soften and spread under slides so that flatter single layers might display chromosomes more clearly. Even if it takes me a year to find a single cell containing chromosomes at meta- or anaphase to observe, it will be a spellbinding moment.
You guys are awesome. Thanks is hardly enough to say when a new endeavor appears and keys are lent to open the door to a fascinating new vista. Already, I have learned more than I ever did in high school biology ... not that it wasn't right there all along ... but because it had no real-world meaning to me then.
Now, it does.
