Category: Materials
Anything related to non-biological or biological materials
Hyaluronic Acid dried on slide
I put a drop of a Hyaluronic acid solution on the slide. I didn’t see anything with brightfield/polarizing microscopy. I looked at it again 2 days after it had dried, with one polarizing filter, then both and finally with polarizing filters and a “frugal” compensator (the coverslide in our Foldscope kits).
GREAT RESOURCE! Book recommendation
Whether you are in the U.S. or not (like us) this is a wonderful resource for educators planning explorations of the microcosmos. The INTRODUCTION and background information is wonderful and the description and ID KEYS are wonderful!
Fun time with fibres and other things
From the clothes we wear to the paper on which we write, these things are made of fibres. Fibres of polysaccharides. Just how amazing these look under a foldscope… Paper may look smooth and uniform as viewed from the naked eye, but microscopically a different story is seen. Cotton fibres seen through…
Capillary action occuring on paper
One thing we often do while preparing any wet mount is removing excess of mounting medium; mainly by making use of blotting paper. Wondered how blotting paper takes up the excess medium so quickly? A phenomenon called capillary action comes into play. Blotting paper consists of several hydrophilic substances and water (most common mounting media)…
Fiery foldscoping!
I was curious about how chemical reactions would look like, microscopically. Particularly, combustion. However, observing one on foldscope wasn’t easy as putting the flap on would immediately extinguish any burning object. That could be solved easily by not putting the flap (it was obvious). However recording a burning object and even taking care to record…
permanent marker film
Here are some images of dried permanent marker film written on the mesh pouch provided with the foldscope. It appears that a convenient approximation of the field of view of the foldscope is one square of the mesh!
Is used makeup really that gross? – Bio60_2018
I’ve always read things online about how you’re supposed to wash your makeup brushes regularly, but like the majority of the makeup-wearing population, I do not listen to these warnings. Unlike most makeup-users, I only own one makeup brush that I use for pretty much everything, maybe twice a week. This thing has been all…
Polarized light foldscopy
I finally got myself a polarizing film. By this I can now polarize the light falling on the sample by placing the film between the light source and the sample and further by placing another film between the lens and the eye/camera I can block the same polarized light so that only light whose polarization…
Free Resource: Freshwater free-living Protozoa ID GUIDE
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.amfb.eu/SFWM/bibliotheque/pdf/Free-LivingFreshwaterProtozoa(Patterson).pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiu8a-p9ezYAhVE3FMKHVQtAMkQFjAMegQIERAB&usg=AOvVaw30WjAaDgO4ixMgBuY3tGs8
Dead bug night collections / photos with delux kit
I am finding the included tools in the Delux kit really great for general observation, description and photography. Here using the forceps, Petri dish and hand magnifier ate super helpful!
A single female human hair
I had a great opportunity to meet Manu Prakash sir through DBT workshop in IIT Bombay. Simply inspired by him. I tried one of my friend human hair in foldscope.I am able to see capillary kind of structure. Experience was simply amazing .
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…
Yellow synthetic feathers
Yellow Synthetic feather
Nothing is sharp even if paper cuts your hand
Recently i got a paper cut in my finger while i was writing my assignment. I asked myself how is this even possible DROP ASSIGNMENT TAKES THE PAPER OPENS BOX TAKE THE FOLDSCOPE MINDBLOWN. Though it was cut highly presise by machines in the industry , its not. I was even able to see the…
Plosyter vs cotton
I just now got my foldscope ..(MANU SIR you’re really a genius.😮.) The first thing I wanted to see was a pixels in a display.(I’m still working on it) Getting to the topic topic …I saw a post by one of the members where he took a single strand of a cotton thread when under…
Video: Middle School Tech Review
Real tools lead to real work at Opportunity Middle School in Concord, NC. Using microscopes, foldscopes, and laser lens hacked cheap fire tablets, our students are opening up their world, all on their own. With only a couple of takes after stumbling over the term “microscope,” these 7th and 8th graders free-styled this video to…
Microcosms of marine plastic debris
Hello Foldscope Community, I am Mandy Barker a photographer from the UK who has been photographing marine plastic debris recovered from the world’s oceans for many years. The motivation for my work is to raise awareness about the vast amount of plastic entering our oceans, affecting ecosystems, biodiversity, marine life and ultimately ourselves. Using the Foldscope I…
Microfluidics: a primer
This post is going up a little before I’d like, in that I’ve made a few steps towards a tool for the Foldscope, but the tool isn’t easy to use or refined yet. A teacher I work with outside of Denver, Colorado that does an amazing job of letting students really taste whats its like…
How to Build a Plankton Net
Although one of the best things about our explorations with the Foldscope is that you can pretty much find your subjects anywhere you look, occasionally it is helpful, when looking for specific groups of critters, to build a little bit of extra equipment to help you along the way. One of these that I have…
Foldscope Mod: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Today I wanted to see if I could make my folscope a little more smartphone friendly. While the folded housing of the scope is fantastic for fixed slides and direct hand-to-human-eye microscopy, I’ve had some difficulty when it comes to taking pictures with the camera on my phone. The issues are: Too many moving parts!…
Tinkering around with a DIY LED mount
Hi Foldscope Community! I’m Carrie, another graduate student in the California State University, Monterey Bay class that was lucky enough to receive Foldscopes this semester! When we were first constructing our scopes, we didn’t have enough LED switches and mounts to go around – not a problem! Our professor, Dr. Kerry Nickols, handed out some…
Plankton at Gantry State Park
After a long cold snap at the end of the winter, and a pretty rainy spring, this week has finally brought in some sunny and warm days. I happen to be on spring break this week from one of the institutions I call home, so I took the time off to go fishing. It’s not…
prof premraj pushpakaran
prof premraj pushpakaran
Getting Started with my Foldscope
I’m happy to be joining the Foldscope community today! Having received one through a connection with one of my graduate professors, I can’t wait to take this bad boy out for a spin. While I’d assume everyone here has had the opportunity to put theirs together, for my first blog post I wanted to share…
Time Lapse
This post doesn’t feature any images taken with a Foldscope, but it’s part of an area of interest I came to as a result of our microcosmic investigations. As with the environment itself, it’s sometimes helpful to see the kinds of scientific investigation we do with the microscopes as part of a larger observation of…
Compounding a foldscope
Here is a problem that might adorn entrance examination tests someday. It originated in a dream that I had a few days ago. I suspect this dream was inspired by the SLR hack of the foldscope. The low power lens of the foldscope can magnify objects ~140 times. The low power of a typical compound…
Arthropod Soil Biodiversity and Foldscope-DSLR Camera Hack
It has been a while since my last post on butterfly wing scales – since then I’ve been thinking up some directions to apply the Foldscope to a more in-depth study on biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest. When I initially played with the Foldscope in the jungle, I had the idea to take one scoop of soil to see what…
Don’t judge a book by its cover…
There are many advertisements in the form of magazine booklets which come in the mail every day. Usually they just come and go in my house, but this time I decided to look at a sample from one under my Foldscope. I was expecting to see the one uniform maroon color I saw with my…