Stereology Let's Us Measure the World Correctly

Stereology is more than counting cells although that is the most common use of stereological principles in the eyes of neuroscientists. Stereology is used in a great number of biological disciplines other than tissue level studies.

One of the interesting parts of the biological studies that employs proper stereological principles is ecology. One of the questions that is studied is some measure of biological diversity. A great number of measures have been conceived and many have fallen to the side as their weaknesses have been revealed.

Stereological measures were developed that provided information needed to answer questions such as biological diversity, and available forage. Many of these methods use techniques that are the same as the methods that are performed under the microscope. In fact, very similar problems exist such as the edge effect.

The importance of stereological methods, whether under the microscope or macroscopic analyses of large land areas, is that the methods have been develoepd that provide the right answer.