Plastic Embedding and Polishing of Bone for Reflected Light and Electron Microscopy

The successful embedding of bone or any sample for reflected light or electron microscopy is crucial to the success of any analysis that might follow. Different materials present different embedding challenges, and here we discuss bone. Embedding is developed often as an adapted in-house protocol, and will vary from one institution to another, and is barely referenced in any detail in scientific papers. This chapter provides the protocol for bone that has proved successful at the Natural History Museum, both for reflected light and particularly for scanning electron microscopic examination.