I ripped the wing off of a fly
Category: Environment
Environmental observations (observations in the field, pollution etc).
Getting nerdy about tea bags!
This post can also be viewed on my website: https://kanika-khanna.com/getting-nerdy-about-tea-bags/ I recently took out my foldscope from its storage bin after almost a year. But as the saying goes, it’s never too late to start exploring. I stepped out of my home into our street here in Palo Alto and took some pretty images of…
Tradescantia spathacea (mose in the cradle) leaf
Tradescantia spathacea leaf
Skunkvine (Stinkvine) leaf
My garden has lots of these vines. Peaderia scandens (Lour.)
Images to feed Foldscope AI
In this post I am sharing a link for my drive where I upload images every time I do experiment. Foldscope Team will be using these footages to train the Foldscope application to recognize the organisms. Maybe you like to check if you have any images unshared, please do share them here and try to…
California, Bay Area Wildfires – Urban Soot Sampling
As of today (12th Sept 2020), wildfires in California and the rest of the west coast of the USA have consumed several million acres of forest cover. The national disaster took a dramatic turn when the skies turned into apocalyptic orange shades right after a heatwave during the labour day weekend. The skies from the…
Fungi on stale bread.
Fungi are legit the fun guys! unless they cause diseases. Fungi are a diverse group of eukaryotic organisms, almost omnipresent. There was bread in the house which I had forgotten existed for 3 days straight! and voila what I get to see is the assorted fungus which grew in those 3 days! That too, in…
Pollen germination
Those fascinating observations from pollen grain germination in the Brahma Kamalam drew me irresistibly towards flowers of other plants. Recently I have been watching educational videos as now I am planning to create videos for school students using Foldscope images. In the biology videos for Classes 11 & 12 I noticed that Vinca rosea (Periwinkle)…
Amazing experience with Epiphyllum oxipetalum
Epiphyllum oxypetalum is often described as ‘Queen of the night cactus’. In India it is considered a sacred plant and called ‘Brahma Kamalam’, though there is much controversy about whether or not it is the ‘true’ Brahma Kamalam. In any case there is a lot of mystique associated with this plant. It blooms sometime between…
Unfolding Foldscope for the First Time
The current pandemic may have restricted the movement of youngsters but it cannot hold off their passion to learn. Upon discovering Foldscope online, we got a basic kit for these budding, young citizen scientists who gamely assisted in setting it up. It’s a wide stretch of learning and discovery path for them as they try…
Finally, the Tardigrade!
For more than two years now we have scoured water bodies and mosses, and soaked edible and non-edible lichen, in quest of the elusive tardigrades. With the onset of monsoons in Hyderabad, it seemed like a promising time to search for these ‘moss piglets’. That is how one Saturday afternoon, while looking for plants at…
Insight into Parasites – A ‘101’ on Viruses
(A small write-up, written by my batchmates and I. Decided to post this here. Hope you enjoy reading it :D) _____ While we’ve been locked in our houses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are wondering when life will be back to normal, we are reminded again and again that a tiny virus has brought…
Stomata in succulent leaves
At the peak of summer, the potted plants in my balcony get an extra dose of sunlight! One of these plants is the Ceylon spinach (Talinum fruticosum). I noticed that during summer its leaves are curled up most of the time. I guessed the excess of sunlight or wet soil may be the cause. I…
Chlorella (green algae) from stagnant water
Not only is this my first post on Microcosmos, it’s my first day using the AMAZING Foldscope! I collected a sample of slightly green stagnant water from beautiful Pt. Defiance Park here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s so cool to see the rolling sphere shaped Algae! I wish I could upload a video for you…
Exploration of COVID 19 Pandemic: A summary of Science in various masks during 21 Days Lockdown
Today I am posting a post on various surgical masks that were used by everyone during the lockdown for protection against COVID 19 virus. In general, humans who are not affordable for purchasing masks for regular usage inside the home, as well as outside premises. To protect the COVID 19 disease most of the middle…
Wonder-worms in a pedestal pond
One fine spring morning, my nephew called me to show something ‘interesting’ in a pedestal pond in our housing society. When I reached there, I saw a beautiful lotus blooming and some dry lotus leaves around (they looked curled up or folded). It seemed that they were being stitched together to make a home… wonder…
Foldoscoping on the day of Janata Curfew
what better way to celebrate the Janata Curfew inside the home? During the day of Janata curfew to destroy the Carona virus from India, Prime minister Narendra Modi started a journey on 22 March 2020. To celebrate this event we students with Ms. Sri Lakshmi, Ms. Purandarswari under the guidance of Dr. Vemuri srs Praveen…
Water currents in the microcosmos
Watching different water samples under the Foldscope, I was fascinated by the variety of constantly active minute organisms, each with their unique ways of capturing food. Their feeding process, driven by tiny cilia, creates competing water currents on a single glass slide. Each minute animal makes its own whirlpool to suck food into its mouth…
Schools closed; kids staying home.. Foldscope on!
By now, everybody knows about the pandemic that has sweeped the world – Convid-19, a viral infection that is spreading like wild fire. While these are trying times and we all must do our part to #flattenthecurve – stay at home and isolate yourself as much as possible – you don’t have to stop exploring….
Microfauna around lichens
My friend Chandrika brought me a sample of these beautiful lichens from Bangalore, with the hope of finding Tardigrades in them. We soaked one of the samples in RO water. After 5-6 hours, with great enthusiasm I started to hunt for tardigrades but no luck! In every single sample I observed, that very familiar guest…
Hello :) I am a New User – Africa Coffee Anna
Hello Foldscope community My name is Anna Kim from currently working in Coffee Sector in Rwanda, D.R Congo, Ethiopia, and Burundi. I am so excited to use foldscope in Coffee sectors and will share some results here. I have zero background in Science stuff but let’s see how we can find something and use this…
Hallway House Dust
Cropped image of house dust sampled on a piece of clear tape, showing a diagonal hair and some blue (clothing?) fibres, along with unidentified other microparticles. Uncropped full field view of dust sample
Iridescent Scales of Common Jay Butterfly.
Biology, Nature. Where do butterflies get their striking colors? Wing of a Common Jay (Graphium doson) Papilionidae . Butterflies actually get their colors from Ordinary(pigmented) and Structural color The ordinary comes from pigments Structural color is due to Iridescence
कांदा/ प्याज़/ Onion through the Foldscope
कांदा माइक्रोस्कोप मधून कसा दिसतो? प्याज़ माइक्रोस्कोप में से कैसा दीखता है? How does onion looks through the Foldscope? Photos taken with d Foldscope.