On Thu, 9 May 2002, P. Emry wrote:
> I let my slides air dry rather than putting them on a warmer.
> Is there some benefit to warmer-drying over air?

IMHO No.  Rapid drying undissolves air from the film
of water under the sections, and the resulting
minibubbbles (easily seen at low magnification under
the sections on the dried slides) result in bumpy
and detached sections. For disastrous slides, dry them
above the melting point of the wax. Melting the wax
is OK only AFTER all the water beneath the sections
has gone.

I've never used a slide-dryer that evaporates water with
the slides in a vertical plane. Universities can't afford
such things. The principle is good, and people fortunate
enough to have such equipment tell me that it works well.

If you're stuck with hotplates, keep one at 40C for
drying before staining, and one at 45C for stained
and coverslipped sections.
----------------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,  Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan