While petrographic thin sections can provide a great variety of invaluable geological information, if you can't identify the different features, minerals and textures that they might show, they might as well be a form of abstract stained glass in…
POSTED 01/23/2024 - 09:17
Showcasing the geology of National Nature Reserves
Very few National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are designated primarily for their geology – but many contain interesting and unusual geological features or strata. The unique wildlife and landscapes of many NNRs are only there because of the rocks…
POSTED 10/30/2023 - 09:17
Problems accessing microscope images?
Update 30 October 2023:
The error detailed below was fixed last week and the images should all be accessible.
If you find the error persists, you may need to clear your browser's cache (for example, via the browser's…
POSTED 03/22/2021 - 14:56
A first carbonaceous chondrite find for the UK
Following the meteor that blazed a trail across southern England on the evening of Sunday, 28th February, UK researchers have recovered fragments of meteorite from Winchcombe and the surrounding area.…
POSTED 02/17/2021 - 14:25
VM to debut as model for Instagram art class!
Exciting – not to say astonishing – news: the Virtual Microscope is modelling for an online art class on Thursday 11th February – see flyer image. This free informal weekly drawing class is organized and hosted by Emma…
POSTED 01/08/2021 - 21:13
Zeiss-GSL Scholarship: apply now!
Applications for the ZEISS-GSL scholarship are now open. The scholarship, worth £8000, will fund a project that uses innovative microscopy within an Earth Science PhD studentship. Applications are welcomed from the UK and overseas (excluding…
POSTED 01/19/2021 - 19:17
Three brand-new collections
Three universities – Leicester, Plymouth and Portsmouth – have partnered with us to help support online teaching during the COVID pandemic. Between them they have made >200 samples from their…
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 16:02
GeoLab consortium develops teaching collection
The new Irish GeoLab collection, created in a collaboration of four Irish Universities (UCC, TCD, NUIG and UCD) and the OU, has reached 67 samples after we combined it with the Trinity College Collection. The collection will be used by…
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 16:45
Fantastic Moon rock thin sections
We’re working with NASA to digitise the iconic Apollo Moon rock thin section samples and after a year we’ve managed around 120. They’re all now available in the Apollo lunar…
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 17:17
Irish University Rocks Collection
We've started work on a project to create a collection of virtual thin sections using teaching collections of Irish Universities in a project which is entitled “The Geoscience e-Laboratory (Geo-LAB): Developing Digital Teaching and…
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 17:36
New collection of undergraduate thin sections
Colleagues at Leeds University have been using 20 virtual microscope thin sections for undergraduate teaching for several years but they’ve now allowed us to make them open to everyone on the Virtual Microscope for Earth Sciences site. It’s a…
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 17:39
Black Beauty X-ray map testing
We hope you like the new experiment we’re trying. A full colour image with mineral composition information for a Martian meteorite.
The virtual microscope software allows us to combine several different kinds of image and we normally use…