Category: Chemistry
Anything chemical, crystals, precipitates etc.
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).
freezing water
need to watch closely to see freezing of water. using foldscope- placed drop of water on glass slide. used freezer in fridge for freezing water. captured it immediately.
common salt and sugar under foldscope.
common salt sugar foldscope can be used in studying crystalline structures. definitely a study tool for students
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…
Polarized explorations part 2
Hello everyone, There are going to be tons of pics in this post so I better limit the words. I have foldscoped 3 compounds here – Citric acid , L-cysteine and Potassium dichromate. Recrystallized Citric acid Just while I was foldscoping these citric acid crystals an orange caught my attention! I thought Why not try…
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…
8-Hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid crystals under polarized light.
@Laksiyer initially gave the idea to view it under polarized light. So got hold of an old Nokia Screen that was lying around and made use of the LCD screen as a polarizing filter. it isn’t pretty but does the work.
8-Hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid crystals
The work that is done in our lab mostly involves 8Hydroxyquinoline and Porphyrin. This is 8-Hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid.
Inculcating Research Culture Right From Schools
As a part of TIFR, Hyderabad’s efforts to facilitate better science education in the local schools, it now interacts closely with four of the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Schools, all within 10 km from the institute. On regular close interactions with the teachers and students alike from the schools, we realized that schools are fast…
Yellow synthetic feathers
Yellow Synthetic feather
#Bio 60 Ibuprofen Dissolving
Ibuprofen was crumbled onto a glass slide. Water was then added by a dropper, which began to dissolve the medication.
Sample pictures
I’m using an older model of the Foldscope microscope, and I have been testing the microscope out on a variety of samples. The attached pictures are: [1] Blood; [2 – 3] Fruit fly; and [4] Salt. Dino
Hacking A Lower Powered Foldscope
Recently, I decided to undertake a search for micrometeorites (you can read more about them here). Since a good portion of micrometeorites are ferrous, you can use a magnet to search for them. However, not all samples of ferrous particles are potential micrometeorites, so you will have to examine them. I already have a handheld…
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…
The secret about lice
On December the 6th I got lice on my head. I was curious to see what it was. So me and my Dad took two lice that I had on my head and put it under the Foldscope. I learned lots of new things about lice. I learned that lice are insects because they have…
A Sweet Perspective– By: Keerthi Padmanabhan
Today I saw a grain of sugar under the foldscope. In the pictures I took, it was very hard to focus, so the images look a little blurry. I saw that the sugar grains I looked at were rectangular in shape and saw that many of the grains were stuck together. Here is how they…
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…
Foldscope in the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
The Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos is the most Antique University in America, where diverse events in the history of science and technology in Peru have aroused. “Sanmarquinos”, as they are usually called, have contributed and continue contributing to all aspects of the scientific development in Peru and the world. Medical Sciences represent one…
Products from the Sea
You might know that some of the products you use every day contain ingredients that come from the ocean. From calcifying microorganisms to algae, marine ecology plays a role right in our homes. Carrageenen, for example, is a thickening agent that is extracted from red algae. Products that often contain ocean-borne ingredients are sunscreen, makeup, and toothpaste….
What is in Mr. Potato?
The Potato that we eat today originated in the Andes of South America. We consume a storage organ of the plant called the tuber, which is a modified underground stem. All modern potatoes came from a single potato somewhere in modern Peru. I find this quite amazing. Up until about the late 1500s, the Potato…
The Relational Imagery of Graphite & Graphene
The attributes of graphene and its electric and thermal conductivity have always fascinated me. Graphene simply put, is a single one atom thick layer of graphite. And graphite is what is used to make pencil lead. Essentially graphite is made up of hundreds of thousands of layers of graphene. What differentiates the structural make up of…
A student Lead Investigation
Leading an investigation. using foldscopes to evaluate the quality of homemade plastics. After leading the lab she created to create plastic from hair, the student had her classmates evaluate the quality of the plastic they produced with the foldscopes.
Calcium oxalate
I was looking at the outer skin of the onion also called tunic. I saw white rectangular shapes on it. I found out its called calcium oxalate crystals, a colorless crystalline salt. I found many on the tunic of the onion.😀 I hope you enjoy my first time posting. -vaishnavi (13 years)
Silver Crystals Using Tollens’ Test Reagents
Have you ever seen the Silver Mirror trick at a chemistry show? That’s when silver is precipitated out of solution onto a glass surface. The demo consists of a series of clear solutions being combined in a glass flask. As the presenter swirls the flask, a shiny mirror forms on the inner surface of the…
March of the crystals
Inspired by the series of posts from the “frozen project” by a 6-year old and mom; I brought out my Vitamin C crystal bottle again. See Frozen project series here: http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/2015/05/20/the-frozen-project-the-conclusion/ @Laks and I have previously posted extensively on Vitamin C crystallization and also it’s biological implications [see post here] Now it was time for…
A close of up coiled-texture hair- uabbiotech_PVD
Many people are intrigued by just how different the hair of African and African descendants is. There are numerous misconceptions about African-textured hair, chief among them that “black hair doesn’t grow.” This misconception stems from the biology of the hair structure itself, which is different from the structures commonly seen among other ethnic groups. This hair…
Thiomargarita namibensis (Giant sulfur bacteria)
This is Thiomargarita namibiensis – the largest of all known bacteria. Individual cells can reach nearly 1mm in diameter. These bacteria are lithotrophs that gain energy from the oxidation of sulfide using oxygen or nitrate as an electron acceptor. The bright spots are elemental sulfur that is stored inside the cell. These samples were collected…