Terry,
cork discs provide an excellent mechanism for orienting small pieces of tissue, as plastic coverslip can be inserted in a slot in the cork and the tissue arranged on
these. The cork disc also provides a convenient system for labeling so that multiple specimens, on  separate corks,  can be stored in one box.
As far as being a poor conductor, the tissue is small and is usually floated face down in the solution so that the conductivity of the cork is a mute point.
Barry


Terry.Marshall@rgh-tr.trent.nhs.uk wrote:

> I have never understood the reason for these little bits of cork, which provide a non-heat conducting, wobbly, prone-to-fall-off, interface between chuck and tissue.
>
> Terry L Marshall
> Histopathologist
> Rotherham General Hospital, Yorkshire
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: p=NHS NATIONAL
> INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=ian.montgomery(a)bio.gla.ac.uk;
> Sent: 08 January 2001 13:20
> To: p=NHS NATIONAL
> INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=histonet(a)pathology.swmed.edu;
> Subject: Cork discs.
>
>          A question for UK Histologists.
>          After many years I'm running out of cork discs for cryostat
> specimens and unfortunately I can't remember who supplied them. Please,
> anyone using cork discs, where did you buy them.
> Ian.
>
> Dr. Ian Montgomery,
> West Medical Building,
> University of Glasgow,
> Glasgow,
> G12 8QQ.
> Tel: 0141 339 8855.  Extn:6602.
> Fax: 0141 330 2923
> e-mail: ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk