Jake Cline

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      After a bit of troubleshooting and some helpful tips from friends including @Cherrmann, I successfully performed some Foldscope microphotography and videography!  Super grateful to the Prakash lab and Dr. Kerry Nickols for the chance to own one of these babies!   Our subject today is Tetramorium caespitum, or the pavement ant.  With brilliant ideas like Foldscope, everyone everywhere can harness the power and wonder of science!  Better quality photos/videos to come!
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Foldscope Success!

Exploring the microscopic at Carmel Point, CA

<p>
 Hey Foldscopers!  Back with some more microscopic adventures from our Marine Ecology graduate class at Cal State University Monterey Bay.  Because we just can’t stay away from the intertidal zone in this area, we visited Point Pinos in Pacific Grove.  It is the northern end of the Monterey Peninsula and features a large swath of prime intertidal habitat!
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 <img alt="IMG_7606" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15931 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15931" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462874337","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.0034722222222222","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_7606" data-recalc-dims="1" height="224" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7606.jpg" width="300"/>
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<p>
 Among the first things we found were thousands of by-the-wind sailors (
 <em>
  Velella velella
 </em>
 ), small but beautiful free-floating cnidarians related to jellyfish and corals.  These are a “cosmopolitan” species, meaning that they can be found all over the world in areas with the right oceanic conditions.  Although they occasionally wash up onshore in great numbers, they were entirely new to me and I had to examine further!
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 <img alt="IMG_7597" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15934 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15934" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462869876","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.0018348623853211","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="IMG_7597" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7597.jpg" width="224"/>
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<p>
 So apparently these guys belong to a class of cnidarians called hydrozoa, and each one is actually a colony of hydroids.  Hydroids are small polyps that group together and form a structural matrix around themselves, usually made of chitin and other compounds.  It is this material that makes up the beautiful geometric sail that aligns with the direction of the wind to propel
 <em>
  Velella
 </em>
 across the open seas.  I got some Foldscope photos of the polyps and the surrounding blue pigment:
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 <img alt="IMG_7615" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15932 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15932" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462898560","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="IMG_7615" data-recalc-dims="1" height="287" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7615.jpg" width="300"/>
 <img alt="IMG_7614" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15933 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15933" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462898207","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.066666666666667","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="IMG_7614" data-recalc-dims="1" height="269" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7614.jpg" width="300"/>
 <img alt="IMG_7620" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15929 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15929" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462898699","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.058823529411765","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="IMG_7620" data-recalc-dims="1" height="298" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7620.jpg" width="300"/>
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<p>
 Awesome.  We saw many other beautiful yet outlandish creatures at Point Pinos as well – Hopkins’ rose nudibranchs (
 <em>
  Hopkinsia rosacea
 </em>
 ), multitudes of giant green anemones (
 <em>
  Anthopleura xanthogrammica
 </em>
 ), and even a tiny octupus who may have been the common two-spotted
 <i>
  Octopus bimaculoides
 </i>
 !
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 <img alt="IMG_7608" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15930 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15930" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462874493","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.0083333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_7608" data-recalc-dims="1" height="224" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7608.jpg" width="300"/>
 <img alt="IMG_7611" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15928 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15928" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462875038","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.85","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.004","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_7611" data-recalc-dims="1" height="224" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15927/IMG_7611.jpg" width="300"/>
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<p>
 So many thanks to the Prakash lab at Stanford for the chance to test drive our very own Foldscopes and spread the word about handheld science!  Our scopes now  have permanent pockets in our backpacks, and they are with us everywhere we go.  Won’t stop exploring any time soon. : )
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Jake Cline

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Foldscope Success!

Exploring the microscopic at Carmel Point, CA

Hydrozoa & friends at Point Pinos, CA

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Foldscope Lens Magnification