Tips on Viewing Life in a Water Drop

Dec 28, 2015 • 9:59 AM UTC

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140x Magnification

Microorganisms

aatish

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I’ve been trying to image life in a water drop under the foldscope, and found it trickier than I expected. Here’s a video of a recent attempt.

I don’t recognize any of the things I’m looking at, so if anything looks familiar to you, please drop a note in the comments.
Anyway, I reached out to Manu for some pointers on imaging life in water. I’m pasting below his response.
Really nice 🙂 Water from a pond has almost an unbounded diversity of life; once you get a hang of how to make slides – it’s really incredible. For an example – see this post : https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=3500
Tips:
1) I think you are using the 450x lens in that video; a lower mag larger field of the view 150x lens is a better starting choice.
2) Live water samples requires making slides well. Use a glass slide for best resolution. Put two pieces of tape on two side (double sided tape is provided in the kit); put cover slip on the top. This allows just enough space for the organisms to survive.
3) Collect a drop of water from someplace which has a slightly “green” color – due to some algae growth. That’s the best indication that the water is not so polluted that it kills everything – frankly; anytime I have sampled water – it’s always got an incredible diversity.
Looking forward to trying these tips out!