I received an email today from customer Nikki Atkins who works for NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
"I just received my putty order in the mail today, and wanted to say
thanks! The colors (blue and black) are beautiful and will work
wonderfully for their intended purpose. i work in a lab where we age
fish. The otoliths (also called ear bones) are small bones in the
inner ear of the fish, and we break them in half and look at the
cross-section. Like trees, otoliths gain a new growth ring each year,
so we can count these rings to determine the fish's age.
The putty comes in as a way to stand the otoliths on end while we
look at the cross section under a microscope. Often we use clay but
the mineral oil used to clarify the cross section makes clay dissolve
over time. Regular old putty is too light-colored, and hurts the eyes
when you have to stare at it under strong light all day. i was
trilled to find your site - the dark putty colors are perfect, and
your putty is stiffer than the average stuff which means the otoliths
don't slump and tip over as fast. It also means that the "well" i
make in my putty to hold water for looking at otolith surfaces
doesn't close up as fast.
Thanks again, and i'm sure if we ever need more we'll be ordering
from you again! (Although your fantastically generous tins mean we
have plenty of extra at the moment!)
Attached are a
few photos of some of the otoliths we age, so you can get an idea of
what they look like. One is a fairly easy-to-age 4 year old Petrale
sole, and the other is a somewhat trickier 27-year old Sablefish. You
can see why having a stable holding medium gets to be important when
you're working with some of the rockfish that can get to be 100 years
old or more, and all those lines are packed together. If something
shifts or you blink wrong you'll lose your place and have to start from
the beginning again. :)
4 year old Petrale Sole
27 year old Sablefish - top view
27 year old Sablefish - cross section
Anyhow, thanks again!
~Nikki Atkins"
Very cool stuff. I didn't know that fish ear bones grew like tree rings. This isn't the first time I've heard of a customer using Thinking Putty to hold things in place. A number of large online stores use it to hold items in place during product photography. We've custom made putty that can hold its shape under the hot photographic lights. We've also custom colored it for customers to match a particular background and help the 'holder' become invisible.
