Exhibit A - "silk" (?) A while back I decided to really get into microphotography and so I bought a $30 "toy" microscope (not the insrument used to produce these images!). In the "kit" there were two multi specimen slides. One was labelled "textiles" and contained a specimen labelled "silk". When I examined it my first impression was that it looked like feathers. I had never seen silk under a microscope before so I was a little unsure about declaring that this slide was mislabelled.

Exhibit B - "goose" That is, until I saw exhibit B. This was on another multispecimen slide in the same kit. The slide was labelled "animal fibers" and this speciment was labelled "goose". The resemblance was remarkable, a little too remarkable. I don't know for sure that the previous specimen was goose feathers, but I'm convinced it was NOT silk! While I'm sure this microscope set could be a lot of fun and maybe even educational, it could also be very confusing. How many kids do you suppose will grow up thinking that silk looks like feathers?

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