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View of Winchcombe, where fragments of the meteorite were found
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.…

Flyer for Instagram art class featuring Virtual Microscope
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…

Composite image based on photomicrograph of a Triassic meteorite impact deposit
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…

logos for Leicester, Plymouth and Portsmouth universities on a background of several virtual microscope images
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…

Microscope image of tin ore under crossed polars
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…

Close up plane-polarised view of sample 15427 Green Glass Clods from the Apollo 15 mission
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…

GeoLab logo above image of Ben Bulben, banner image of Irish University Rocks collection
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…

Leeds University logo on stylized microscopic view of fossiliferous limestone
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…

X-ray map microscopic image of 'Black Beauty' Martian meteorite
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…

iCrag logo overlying a screenshot of the iCrag website showing a rainbow coloured seismic section
POSTED 02/17/2021 - 17:25
iCRAG researchers secure virtual microscope funding

The Geoscience e-Laboratory (Ge-LAB)

A group of iCRAG members (UCC, TCD, NUIG and UCD) in partnership with the Open University have just succeeded in securing substantial funding from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching…

Geological map of St Austell granite and surrounding area
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 17:46
New - St Austell Granite Collection

Dr Andy Tindle has created a new collection of 30 rocks and thin sections from the St Austell Granite in SW England. 

The St Austell granite is famous for it's mines and china clay pits - zones where the hydrothermal activity…

Map with cities represented as blue circles whose relative sizes show numbers of virtual microscope users
POSTED 01/07/2021 - 17:51
Hello Hull and Phoenix!

The virtual microscope for Earth sciences has been on-line nearly 3 years, and each year around this time the number of users increases as the new university term begins. The largest number of users are still in the UK but that is slowly changing…