Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of observing living-specimen slides and heat-fixed-specimen slides of microorganisms?

For microbiology

Answer 1

	Advantage	disadvantage
Living	living organism can be visualized Morphology, cellular arrangement and other processes can be studied Difficult to observe since the bacteria are not stained Requirs skilled and expertise person to get better results	could be difficult to se organism due to its regular movement Wet mount preparation should be used immediately, otherwise organism may die due to dehydration. Light sensitive microorganisms can't be seen Can't study internal structure in detail
Heat fixed	prevents the cells from washing away Bacteria don't move and stay at their place Are stained for better contrast Preserve cells and kills microbes	Can't determine the mobility of bacteria Inability to determine morphological and other characteristics of bacteria Shape and size of cells get distorted