Hello everyone, Recent I’d been on a trip to Jaigad which is in Konkan region of Maharashta, India. We visited this really famous Shiva temple in the locality known as Karhateshwar it is situated on the edge of the sea on a steep rocky mountain. There were steps to reach down to the sea where…
It’s a tick! And it is tiny!
My 6 year old son is enjoying a nature camp this summer. He spends the day learning about local creatures and playing in the woods. It’s fantastic! We live in New England and have to be very vigilant about ticks. And ticks are TINY! We check for ticks everyday. Today, after day 1 of nature camp,…
Summer Camp _ part 5
Finally we looked at some random stuff, like yellow-colored chalk: On the last day, we put together some of the images that the students took with foldscopes and presented it to their parents and teachers: Having foldscopes made this camp a lot more fun. As I mentioned in my previous posts, in the beginning students…
Summer Camp – part 4 (plants and insects)
We spent some time outside of the classroom and students collected lots of plants and insects and mounted them on slides. Here are a few images/videos of insects that the students shared with me: Eye and legs of a spider: Armenia is land of apricots. We ate lots of them everyday. One day we opened an apricot and…
Summer camp – part 3 (genetics)
As part of our genetic and phenotypic variation class, first we extracted DNA from strawberries to let the students see what DNA looks like. We tried looking at the extracted DNA using foldscopes. It would have been great to use a DNA dye, but we didn’t have any with us. This is what we saw:…
Summer Camp – part 2 (nutrition lesson)
For our nutrition lesson, we talked about a balanced diet. And then, with foldscopes we looked at different seasonal fruits and greens that grew in the village, and discussed their nutritional value. Here is a basil leaf. A thinner section of the leaf would have looked better: This is the flesh of a plum: Here’s the peel of…
வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சியின் இறகு
31.07.17 மாலை இனியன் தன் பாக்ஸ்ல் கொண்டுவந்த வண்ணத்துப் பூச்சியை மடிப்பு நுண்ணோக்கியில் வைத்து பதிவு செய்தான். இப்போது ஒரு பிளாஸ்டிக் பையில் அடைத்து எடுத்துவந்தான். அவன் பள்ளி விட்டு வெளியே வரும் போது ரோட்டில் அடிப்பட்டு கிடந்ததாம். அதைத்தான் எடுத்துவந்திருந்தான். இப்போது எதை பார்த்தாலும் மடிப்பு நுண்ணோக்கியில் பார்க்கலாம் என்ற நினைவோடே இருக்கிறான். மகிழ்ச்சி அளிக்கிறது. அவன் பதிவு செய்த சில படங்கள் இத்துடன் இணைத்துள்ளேன். வித விதமான வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சிகளின் இறகுகளை பார்க்க முயற்சித்து வருகிறான்….
Summer camp- part1
Hi everyone, My name is Teni and I’m a PhD student at Stanford University. As I mentioned in my previous post, this summer I joined the Hidden Road Initiative organization to travel with a group of volunteers to a remote village in Armenia, named Shvanidzor. Our goal was to teach different skills and topics to…
The Spots on Ferns – SF Conservatory of Flowers, continued….
Ferns are one of my favorite plants. In fact, my very first Microcosmos post concerned the very same. At our Foldscope workshop at SF Conservatory of Flowers this past Saturday (original post here), we took a closer look at those spots you see on the underside of ferns, which are sori, the spore-producing components of…
Foldscope at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers!
This past weekend, myself (Max) and Honomi Ijima from the Foldscope team had the pleasure of hosting a free outdoor public workshop at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, where you can find many more natural wonders beyond the world of flowers. We were delighted to co-host with Drew Risner-Davis, an exhibit manager and ace…
Mystery of floating jelly balls
I am at Woods Hole this week; and just amazed with the biodiversity in the coastal environments around here. I took a stroll around Wood neck beach, with my 6 year old nephew who just got his first plankton tow. The ocean is connected with a little stream and a current passes back and forth….
Using the simple sharpie dark-field setup to visualize C. elegans
I was lucky enough to get my hands on some Foldscopes for a STEM outreach activity. The goal with the Foldscopes was to view C. elegans using as simple of a setup as possible so that all of my students could try something similar at home. For my light source, I followed the suggestions in…
Sand Crabs and Shrimp at Stinson Beach, CA!
A few months ago, Manu introduced me to the foldscope in Stinson Beach, CA! Here are some movies of the organisms we collected. IMG_4028.MOV Sand crabs respond to waves by coming out of the sand to feed on plankton. After the wave has passed, they burrow back into the sand. Here, Manu is disturbing the water to…
Observing the yellow and reddish peel of the Apple.
when students brought the apple as snacks for Eating. They saw some yellowish and reddish colour on the peel. Then they saw in the fold scope how it look like and inside the soft apple also. they enjoyed while doing it.
வெங்காயத் தோல்
இது முதின்ஸ் பதிவு. முதின்ஸ் தற்போது 9ம் வகுப்பு படித்து வருகிறாள். அவள் அறிவியல் பாடத்தில் வெங்காயத்தோல் எடுத்து எப்படி சிலேடு தயார் செய்வது. அதனை மைக்ராஸ்கோப்பில் வைத்து பார்ப்பது எப்படி, பார்த்தால் என்ன தெரியும் என்று இருந்ததை செய்து பார்க்கும் பிராஜெக்ட் கொடுக்கப்பட்டடிருந்தது. அதை ஒட்டி இதனை பதிவு செய்தாள்.
இனியனின் பதிவு
இனியன் கொண்டுவந்த இரண்டாவது வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சியின் நிறம் மஞ்சள் நிறத்தில் இருந்தது. ஆனால் நுண்ணோக்கியில் வைத்து பார்த்தபோது அது பல வண்ணங்களில் மின்னியதை பார்க்க முடிந்தது. மேலும் வண்ணம் இல்லாத இடத்தில் இறகு ஒரு தண்ணீர் துளிகளை தொடர்ச்சியாக வரிசையாக வைத்தது போன்ற அமைப்பில் இருக்கிறது. இதனால் தான் அந்த வண்ண மாற்றம் தோன்றுகிதோ என்ற சந்தேகத்தை இனியன் கேட்டான். விளகம் தெரியும் என்றால் இங்கே பதிவிடுங்கள் அநேகர்தெரிந்து கொள்ள பயனுள்ளதாக இருக்கும்.
இனியனின் பதிவு – வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சி
இன்று இனியன் வரும்போது அவன் டப்பாவில் இரண்டு வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சிகளை கொண்டுவந்தான். அது இறந்து பல நாட்கள் இருக்கும். அதன் வண்ணங்கள் போய்விட்டன. சில இடங்களில் மட்டும் அங்கங்கே வண்ணங்கள் இருந்தன. அந்த இரண்டு வண்ணத்துப்பூசிகளின் இறகுகளின் வண்ணங்களையும். அமைப்பையும் மடிப்பு நுண்ணோக்கியில் பதிவு செய்தான். இது ஒரு வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சியின் இறகு.
comparison study of carrot and potato cells
I collected carrot and potato in the field near gudupalli. then i taken thin section cutting of carrot and potato.the arrangement of cells was mind blowing when iam observing through foldscope.
cells in beet root
when iam preparing hydrilla plant cell slide. I got an idea that plant is made up of cells . I am interested to observe cells in beet root . After observing cells in beet root through foldscope it was amazing.
The World Changers Foldscope Education Projects 2014 & 2017
Dear Microcosmos Community, Greetings from Tioman Island, Malaysia. We are the members of The World Changers, a student-run Non-Profit Organization based in Seoul, Korea. We are thrilled about making our first posting at Microcosmos! Actually, in summer of 2014, as a part of our education project in Tanga, Tanzania, we were lucky to obtain twenty…
Head of a Stick ant from the Ecuadorian amazon
We are at Sani Lodge just north of the Napo River. This is flooded forest in the Amazon. I collected this ant from the underside of a large leaf of a tree that held the ant nest. The tiny ants were trying to build new nests under the leaf Sheltered from the rain #stine17
curiosity to see cheek cells
My name is N. Arun from ZPHS Daseganuru 9th class. when iam listening animal cell class i was interested to see cheek cell. I was first confused how can we see cheek cell through foldscope. After using foldscope i wondered and amazing that i observed the cell wall ,cytoplasm and nucleus , nucleus which is…
Foldscoping from a boat – hello from NZ
I just started a collaboration with Plankton Planet; bringing microscopy on sail boats around the world. An incredible world of plankton – in every drop of the ocean. I will write more about this new work soon; but here is a few snapshots of what it felt like. To get access to the plankton, you…
Our Latex experiments
We wondered what the white latex of a Ficus plant would look like under a Foldscope. Here is the experiment in 5 short videos Video 1/5: Latex in Ficus elongatus. Video 2/5. We spread the latex onto the slide. We had two slides, one in which we really stirred the latex and the other…
First grains of sand
Black sand from a beach north of Auckland (volcanic green grain certainly olivine + “the cigar” certainly a spicule from urchin
Fast moving creatures in the water collected in a Bromeliad in the cloud forest
I collected water from down between the leaves in a bromiliad in the cloud forest at Santa Lucia Bioreserve on the western slope of the Andes in Ecuador. These Long thin creatures were zipping around. anyone know what they are? #stine17
It’s on!
Petal and leaf from the backyard.
Testing Foldscope on pond scum, soil, onion, fish tank scum, and Morchella elata
We are a Stanford class, led by Prof. Margaret “Minx” Fuller, that is about to embark on a trip to Ecuador to study evolution in the Amazon rainforest and Andean cloud forest. We are very excited for the opportunity to use the Foldscope throughout the trip to look at whatever organisms we can find in…