Bees are a rare sight in the city. They are seen as a threat, and we humans are driving them to extinction. Yet, without them no life is possible on Earth. A passion fruit vine in my garden sees scores of pollinators every afternoon. What’s admirable is that both species that visit, honeybees and stingless…
Category: Nature
Things connected to observations in ecological context
Roasted seaweed snack
Presented are the methods and experimentally obtained images of a roasted seaweed snack under magnification via a Foldscope. This exercise was performed as part of Stanford’s BIOE 301C: Diagnostics Devices Lab. Methods. A Foldscope was obtained and assembled using the typical procedure. To hold the sample, the paper slides with rectangular windows (Fig. 1) was…
#EarthDay Plant Box Treasures
In celebration of #EarthDay, our youngsters headed outside to our plant boxes. We do not have open grounds since we live in the city but this did not stop them from enjoying the little treasures outside. #Kalachuchi #FoldscopePhilippines #foldscope #foldscopePH # #CitSci #CitizenScience #7lakesscience #7lakescistizenscience #7lakescitizenscientists #7lakescitizenscientiststeam
Spores, pollen, wonder and more
This is a documentation of two intended samples and one hitch-hiked sample, all very different from each other yet peacefully inhabiting the same square foot habitat. Plus one bonus sample at the end! When I first learnt about fern spores, I was intrigued by how an entire plant grew out of a microscopic grain, and…
Lilac Closeup
I examined three purple spring flowers in my yard (tulip, lilac, wild violet) expecting them to look similar at the cellular level. I was surprised how different they looked! Here is a picture of the lilac. Please see my other posts for pictures of the other flowers.
Tulip Closeup
I examined three purple spring flowers in my yard (tulip, lilac, wild violet) expecting them to look similar at the cellular level. I was surprised how different they looked! Here is a picture of the tulip. Please see my other posts for pictures of the other flowers.
Wild Violets in My Yard
I examined three purple spring flowers in my yard (tulip, lilac, wild violet) expecting them to look similar at the cellular level. I was surprised how different they looked! Here is a picture of the wild violet. What are the little alien-like tentacles? See my other posts for pictures of the other flowers.
some leaves
these cabbage leaves are from my garden and i think it looks so cool!
A Camera-shy Tardigrade!
My first tardigrade – and a surprise at that. I looked into my Foldscope, and, without panning or focusing, the first thing that I saw was a slightly blurred, but recognisable little creature! Yesterday I scraped off some lichens from two trees on my street. I think they were the same kind of lichens; they…
Bioluminescent microbe
This is the picture of a bioluminescent microbe while I was examing the microbes in the water sample that was collected from vellayani lake, Thiruvananthapuram, It is the first time spotting a bioluminescent microbe from this lake, It will be showing a fluorescent red color This is the picture of that microbe without exhibiting the...
Fern Pinnae
Pinnae EdgeYoung Pinnae TipPinnae mid vein with side veinsPinnae mid vein with side veins Pinnae edgePinnae edge
Fern Rhizome
Amazing microscopic
My Hair
Hellooo, mi name es Cindyyyyy
Yeast cells
These tiny dots in the picture are the yeast cells….
Sneak peek into the nutty almonds
My very first sample and observation with the foldscope is this almond seed coat! I routinely soak the almonds every night to have them in the morning. Today morning as I peeled soaked almonds, I was just curious as to how they would appear under the microscope. The seed coat was peeled off, dried and…
A pool of life!
I noticed a green layer (presumably algae) growing on the terracotta pots on my terrace. All the pots have greenish growth on them, but they all look very different. One pot had a layer which was considerably thicker, and easy to scrape off. I soaked bits of it in regular tap water and let it…
Cactus pollen
Pollen and a petal from a Christmas cactus.
Sedum adolphi ‘Firestorm’
As a succulent enthusiast, the object I have chosen for scientific curiosity is a succulent called Sedum adolphi ‘firestorm,’ which were taken from my personal collection of succulents. I find it exciting to learn about the utilization organisms to produce or carry out functions related to the biomedical field. Examples are Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae,…
Moss springtail/ Colémbolo en musgo
Springtails from a moss sample! I was looking for tardigrades, I had never found Collembola in moss. Maybe a member of genus Brachystomella? ¡Colémbolos en una muestra de musgo! Estaba buscando tardígrados, es la primera vez que encuentro colémbolos en el musgo. ¿Podría ser del género Brachystomella?
Foldscope Figures
Not entirely sure what this is but it has liquid-like features. I was trying to to zoom in on cinnamon sugar when I came across this and decided this looked cooler (the cinnamon sugar clumped up so it did not make for a good sample). I'm thinking it's tape glue. My slides stuck together unevenly...
Wing of a Spotted-Lantern Fly
Wing of the invasive species, Spotted Lantern Fly found in Newark, Delaware.
Wing of Eastern Cicada-Killer Wasp
Wing of Eastern Cicada-Killer Wasp found in the basement of an apartment in Newark, Delaware.
Odonata wing
dragonfly wing 🙂
Filoplume
Bird feather, filoplume under the foldscope.
Spotted Lanternfly Wing
Veination within a spotted lanternfly wing
Spotted lanternfly forewing
The distal tip of a spotted lanternfly forewing with pustules visible