The optical staining of Micrographs - But which view is objective?

When I started working on my micrograph project I tried out a lot of different ways of optical staining, al these ways of optical staining have there pro’s and con’s. But which of these used techniques is objective and is showing the real truth? Are there more truths?

This question is still going trough my mind when working on this project cause when people ask me wow is this real? What is the right answer? What answer are they looking for? Does it matter which one is real?

Pick me!

When it comes to “crating a curated reality” under the microscope there are a a lot of options, all resulting in a different reality. So to get good results showing the differences in techniques I used the 2,3-dihydroxybutanedioic acid compound.

Also known as tataric acid, Tartaric acid is a white crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many plants, most notably in grapes. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally in the process of winemaking. It is commonly mixed with sodium bicarbonate and is sold as baking powder used as a leavening agent in food preparation. The acid itself is added to foods as an antioxidant and to impart its distinctive sour taste. Tartaric is an alpha-hydroxy-carboxylic acid, is diprotic and aldaric in acid characteristics, and is a dihydroxyl derivative of succinic acid.

2,3-dihydroxybutanedioic acid

Viewed with different optical staining techniques

Cross-polarized + Berek filter illumination
sample contrast comes from the rotation of the polarized light trough the sample “and optically colored with a half wave length filter”.

Cross-polarized illumination
sample contrasts comes from the rotation of polarized light trough the sample.

Dark field illumination
sample contrast comes from light scattered by the sample.

Oblique illumination
The images has the appearance of a tree-dimensional object under very oblique illumination, causing strong light and dark shadows on the corresponding faces.

Bright field illumination
sample contrast comes from absorbance of light in the sample.

If it comes to science, there would probably be “one” right answer according to the regulations. But in this case I guess its all about form and taste.

Talking about form and taste what would be your 1st pick?