{"id":93,"date":"2026-07-02T14:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microlore.org\/?page_id=93"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:29:55","slug":"about-microlore","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/microlore.org\/?page_id=93","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About Microlore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Microlore is an independent collection of microscopy methods, observations, practical knowledge, and stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some things worth knowing never make it into the literature. Michael Polanyi referred to this as tacit knowledge<\/em> (Polanyi, 1966). It’s the reason one lab gets consistently better results than another, even when they’re following the same protocol. That kind of knowledge is valuable, but it’s also fragile. Protocols are written all the time, but they don’t always capture everything that matters. Methods sections are often compressed, polished, or strategically vague\u2014sometimes to save space, sometimes to protect a lab’s “secret sauce,” and sometimes simply because there isn’t room for every detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts like the Journal of Visualized Experiments<\/em> (JoVE) recognize this gap by showing procedures on video, because some techniques are easier to demonstrate than to describe. Open protocols, online repositories, and communities of practice have helped move science toward greater transparency, but there is still plenty of knowledge that lives only in conversations, notebooks, and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microlore exists to help preserve that knowledge. Here you’ll find methods, observations, experiments, practical guidance, references, and stories. Some articles are polished references. Others explore an idea that’s still taking shape. Some may simply document something interesting before it’s forgotten. My hope is that if something here helps you solve a problem, look at a sample differently, or sparks an idea of your own, then it was worth writing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n