The beaker will hold up in the micowave but the glass coplin jar
probably won't.   Glass coplin jars and the glass staining dishes (at
least here in the U.S.) are generally made from a poor grade of glass.
In fact if you look at them closely you may see air bubbles in the glass
itself.  Those with the visable bubbles will break in the microwave or
in the autoclave.  I speak from sad experience on this as about 6 years
ago one of my students put  a bunch of glassware in the autoclave which
included several coplin jars and staining dishes, none of the staining
dishes survived and only 1 coplin jar (out of 4 or 5) remained intact.
At about the same time another student had the misfortune of having the
bottom of a coplin jar explode in the microwave while doing IHC....no
one was hurt but it sure surprised the !@#$ out of her.

We have always used the plastic coplin  jars (from Steven Slapp),  and
the above incident was 'simple carelessness' on the students part, also
on mine as I thought that she could read.

"Molinari, Betsy" wrote:
>
> I have had some success by placing the glass coplin jar in a beaker of
> water and then heating all that up. I use this method for my myelin
> stain where the cresyl violet needs to be at 68 degrees F and remain
> there for the duration of staining. Now, I do this in a water bath, not
> a microwave so I am not sure if the beaker will withstand it either but
> it mat be worth a try.
>
> > ----------
> > From:         Katri Tuomala[SMTP:katri@istar.ca]
> > Sent:         Sunday, January 23, 2000 7:31 PM
> > To:   Cynthia Favara
> > Cc:   'Ronald L. Salisbury'; 'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
> > Subject:      Re: Coplin jars
> >
> > Glass coplin jars will eventually crack in microwave oven! If not the
> > first time, any subsequent time thereafter. Tried that a few times (
> > thick skull or stubborn?). Katri.
> >

--
best regards,
Bob
Robert Schoonhoven
Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis
Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
University of North Carolina
CB#7400
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Phone
office 919-966-6343
   Lab 919-966-6140
   Fax 919-966-6123

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you
nothing; it was here first.
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)