Alice Dai

My friend Ellen Dai and I spent the last week in our research class trying to image C. Elegans on the Foldscope. We really wanted to capture the nematodes live and wriggling, and after dozens of futile attempts (mostly death by squish), we transferred a sliver of agar onto a slide and the little guys were very energetic!


 This is our setup:


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 The slide on the left has C. Elegans in an agar culture (it’s clear.) I’ve decorated my Focuslock Foldscope with orange Sharpie, and the new feature on this model of the Foldscope made it a lot easier to track the C. Elegans.


 Here’s Ellen looking at the Foldscope with the dark field light module attached:


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 I used the dark field light module to give more contrast when imaging:


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 On the left is a cluster of sluggish C. Elegans (in a previous attempt to image them), and on the left is a still from a video. You can see the inner structure of the C. Elegans, which I found really fascinating. The slightly bulbous chain on the right picture look like vulva, and you can see their tapered tails as well.


 And here’s a video!

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Foldscoping in the classroom: C. &#8220;Elegants&#8221; (not a typo)

In another installment of Foldscoping in the classroom, my friend Ellen and I decided to image the water from my biology teacher’s fish tank:


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 My sample:


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 Prepared wet mount slide with a piece of leaf.


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 I didn’t know what to expect since I had trouble imaging wet slides with the Foldscope in past attempts. But this time, I found something! We took a 20 minute video that I’ve attached to fully encapsulate the wonder and process of enlightenment of what we were looking at. Around the middle of the video, I finally realize that I’m seeing a living organism attached by a stalk to the leaf. My research teacher (the guy wearing black) calls in a group of science teachers to look at the sample on my phone:


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 The environmental science teacher in white tells me that he thinks it’s a Stentor. Ellen and I google whilst recording and the Stentor doesn’t quite fit with the roundness of the organism we’re seeing. Later in the video, we realize that it most likely is a Vorticella, which is a bell-shaped ciliated protozoa. Their stalks contract like a coil when stimulated, which is why we saw the sporadic movements.


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 Here’s the video. Excuse my occasionally unscientific giddiness. I was very excited to finally identify a microorganism and all words escaped me. So, any thoughts? Do you think we’ve correctly identified this organism?


 Some video-watching advice:

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 The first 5 minutes consists of slight confusion and panning around to find microorganisms.
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 The middle of the video is where I start having a conversation with all of the science teachers talking to me.
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 Scroll all the way to the near-end to watch the vorticella move.
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 Alice

Foldscoping in the classroom: Name that protist! Vorticella?

Today during my research class, I was designing some new wet mount slides for the Foldscope and I used the week-old pond water from my last post as a test solution to see if my idea was working. Guess what. It worked! As I was panning around, I saw a Rotifer. The rapid movements of its cilia, pumping organs and contractile movements are fascinating. To think that the founder microscopy, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first documented Rotifers a few centuries ago and being able to image these microorganisms with my Foldscope now is crazy.


 Here’s my setup:


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 I used Marie’s Foldscope imaging station to image my slide. It gives me a lot more control focusing.


 Here’s my slide prototype with the specimen already sandwiched between the plastic coverslips:


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 I added double stick tape to both sides of the plastic slide, then punched a hole through the tape and the slides. I then stuck a plastic coverslip to one side of the slide, creating a tiny well for me to add my sample. I finished by sticking another coverslip to the front of the slide (that already had double-stick tape on it), and then I slid the prepared wet mount slide into the Foldscope.


 Here’s the Rotifer that I found:


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 You can see the ciliated head and slight red pigmentation within its body cavity. Moving forward, I’d like to continue testing out different wet mounts. For now, this sandwich idea looks pretty good. The layers of tape act like a slightly hydrophobic barrier but do not impede the viewing window because they completely surround the hole punch but do not cover the hole. The hole punch is small enough to contain the solution within a confined area and big enough to image a decently-sized sample. The video below gives a better visual of the Rotifer’s movements:


 Note: My exclamation when the Rotifer contracted is particularly amusing (“Oh my gosh! It did something weird!”). Once again, my teacher (the environmental science teacher, Mr. Stoehr) and Ellen (whom I’ve nicknamed Ellenia in the video) make an appearance.

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 Alice

Foldscoping in the Classroom: Serendipitous Rotifer

I went on a mini-vacation to Carmel this week (we’re on break), and insisted to my parents that we go to the beaches so I could finally have an excuse to get my feet wet…for science!

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 <img alt="A selfie I took while scouring for samples in the water. The water was freezing cold and stones were poking my feet, but this is the face of excitement. " class="wp-image-13344 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="13344" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 6","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455548046","copyright":"","focal_length":"2.65","iso":"32","shutter_speed":"0.00052002080083203","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_9952" data-recalc-dims="1" height="450" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_9952.jpg" width="600"/>
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 A selfie I took while scouring for samples in the water. The water was freezing cold and stones were poking my feet, but this is the face of excitement.
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 Here’s some of the scenery from Pebble Beach. I saw a bounty of marine life in the water; sea snail, hermit crabs, fish, sea anemones. It was all very colorful and very lively:


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 I scooped some sea water in a small water bottle and used my Foldscope kit (tweezers, tape, hole punch, paper slides, coverslips, imaging station) to take some shots on site. Here’s me sitting on a ledge trying to make a wet mount on my knee. I used the slide design I thought of last time, with the coverslips sandwiching a paper slide taped with double-stick tape on both sides (it creates a tiny well that won’t squish the organisms).

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 My dad took this while I was preparing slides.
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 I found a krill/shrimp, but unfortunately killed it in death-by-squish while transferring it onto my slide:

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 Taken in the field. I had a harder time getting a good image because I didn’t have as many tools as I would have had back at school or home.
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 I have to say, it’s really hard making slides in the field (especially since I forgot to bring scissors and a pipette). I decided to take my sample 80 miles back home and spent the next day at my table imaging.

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 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-13350">
 My sample from the beach is in the cut-up water bottle on the top-left of the picture. There’s a broken glass on the right with another bag of sea-water and marine plant samples (I was desperate because there was a hole in the bag, so I cracked a sake bottle on the sidewalk…) All of my traveling Foldscope materials go in the revamped iPad box on the right (it’s surprisingly a perfect size). The imaging station is on the bottom left, and finally, I found some scissors. I didn’t have a pipette at home, so I improvised and used a coffee straw for suction (it’s sitting on the water bottle).
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 These are what my slides looked like:


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 I found some amazing organisms that I can’t specifically identify. In laymen’s terms, here’s some moss growth with a developing shrimp/krill/prawn zooming about.


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 <img alt="IMG_9995" class="alignnone wp-image-13375 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="13375" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 6","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455640209","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.15","iso":"32","shutter_speed":"0.0083333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_9995" data-recalc-dims="1" height="621" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_9995.jpg" width="350"/>
 </a>


 Here’s a video of this organism swimming around the slide. Any advice on how to suspend samples in order to slow down movements? Scroll to 1:45 to see a good image of the organism.

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OO1E7T7VCLU?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 After, I looked into my magical water bottle of microorganisms.
 <img alt="IMG_0037" class="wp-image-13370 size-medium aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="13370" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 6","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455975447","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.15","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_0037" data-recalc-dims="1" height="225" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_00371.jpg" width="300"/>


 I found another shrimp/krill/prawn that looked slightly different. It had a longer and more pink/coral body. I didn’t see the forked tail that I saw on the first shrimp/krill prawn and its swimming form was different (more lateral/sideways).




 <a alt="IMG_0016-1.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_0016-1.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_0016 (1)" class="alignnone wp-image-13374 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="13374" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 6","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455641079","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.15","iso":"40","shutter_speed":"0.0083333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_0016 (1)" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_0016-1.jpg" width="400"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_00052.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_00052.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_0005" class="alignnone wp-image-13373 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="13373" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 6","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455640833","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.15","iso":"40","shutter_speed":"0.0083333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_0005" data-recalc-dims="1" height="533" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_13287/IMG_00052.jpg" width="400"/>
 </a>


 Scroll to 1:45 in the next video to see a good shot of this organism:

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gu4O6IKLyy4?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 Lastly, I found a snail and filmed its contractions! I saw a shell in one of the marine plants and decided to image it for fun. Only when I looked at the shell under the Foldscope did I realize that there was a living sea snail inside the shell. It was awesome getting to see the foot move, and there may be a parasite-like organism attached to the foot (I’m not sure. What do you think?).

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
 
 <iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DqCRfIee_2c?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" type="text/html" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 
</div>

 Needless to say, I found a lot of amazing organisms on my trip. Any thoughts?


 
 Alice

Under the sea: Mystery shrimp and footy mollusks

This is my first ever post, and I’m really anxious to share my foldscoping adventures! The following is a sample of an orange petal from a potted flower that my dad got for his birthday. I’m learning about photosynthesis and plant biology in bio right now, so it’s really cool to see that my textbook isn’t lying to me!


 
 Alice

Orange flower

This is part of a veggie plant that was growing in my backyard garden (called “A” 菜 in Chinese…I don’t know the translation!). I made sure to get a part of the leave’s midrib so I could observe its veinous structure. The midrib is much less pigmented due to its structural and transportation purposes when compared to the chloroplasts (the green parts) where photosynthetic tasks are delegated. Also note the little “dots” on the leaf that house the photosystems that capture sunlight photons and transfer them to NADPH and ATP in a series, called the light reaction. It would be really cool to see the stomatal and guard cells of this leaf more up close using a high-mag lens. You can kind of see them here, but the structures of the guard cell aren’t very clear.




 
 Alice

Garden leaf

Hi Microcosmos,


 It’s Alice, long time no see! I’m here to tell everyone about an exciting new Foldscope company blog. This summer, I travelled with the Foldscope team all over Peru, Argentina and Brazil to give workshops and presentations to students, teachers, and organizations. We’ve been on the road for a little over three weeks now, and have officially launched the South America Diaries, which is a monthlong series documenting the Foldscope team’s first trip to South America!! You can read all about it
 <a alt="foldscope-blog" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/foldscope-blog">
 HEREEE.
 </a>


 One useful thing about being a millennial is that we’ve got the selfie camera down. Here are some wholesome front-camera pictures from our trip to give everyone a teaser of our travels and work:

<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-52527" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_52527" style="width: 443px">
 <img alt="IMG_5571" class="wp-image-52527 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="52527" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_5571" data-recalc-dims="1" height="332" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/IMG_5571.jpg" width="443"/>
 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-52527">
 Rebecca and I with students from Club Atletico Juventud Unida Universitario high school in San Luis, Argentina
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-52529" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_52529" style="width: 442px">
 <img alt="IMG_4737" class="wp-image-52529 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="52529" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 7 Plus","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1531762735","copyright":"","focal_length":"2.87","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.066666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_4737" data-recalc-dims="1" height="331" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/IMG_4737.jpg" width="442"/>
 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-52529">
 Middle school students from Milagros, a school in the Peruvian Amazon town of Puerto Maldonado
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-52533" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_52533" style="width: 444px">
 <img alt="IMG_5139" class="wp-image-52533 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="52533" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 7 Plus","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1532457969","copyright":"","focal_length":"2.87","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_5139" data-recalc-dims="1" height="333" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/IMG_5139.jpg" width="444"/>
 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-52533">
 College students from UTEC, a technology and engineering university in Lima, Peru. The girl in the red scarf pricked her finger with a staple to get a sample of her own blood for her first Foldscope slide.
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-52535" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_52535" style="width: 452px">
 <img alt="IMG_4968" class="wp-image-52535 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="52535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 7 Plus","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1532193384","copyright":"","focal_length":"2.87","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.041666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="IMG_4968" data-recalc-dims="1" height="339" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/IMG_4968.jpg" width="452"/>
 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-52535">
 The whole Foldscope and ACEER (more on this organization later) teams and our guide from the Inkaterra Field Station in the Peruvian Amazon looking for birds on a rainy day in the jungle canopies.
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-52539" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_52539" style="width: 442px">
 <img alt="IMG_5549" class="wp-image-52539 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="52539" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"3"}' data-image-title="IMG_5549" data-recalc-dims="1" height="332" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/IMG_5549.jpg" width="442"/>
 <figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-52539">
 Although Jim is not a millenial, he did a good job taking this photo during our tour of the rural pueblos of Argentina on a rainy day. Later that evening we talked to a biochemist working in the hospital of the tiny town of San Martin.
 </figcaption>
</figure>

 All of the team’s adventure’s will be posted on our new blog page:
 <a alt="foldscope-blog" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/foldscope-blog">
 www.foldscope.com/foldscope-blog
 </a>
 . Check it out to get a behind-the-scenes look into the beautiful and mundane experiences that come with our mission to give every person on the planet a microscope. The posts will be written in my perspective but will cover a wide range of information about the organizations who have supported and collaborated with us as well as pictures from our workshops, observations about South America and snippets of great conversations with people we met along the way.  Read the very first post
 <a alt="days-1-3-the-south-america-diaries" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_52494/days-1-3-the-south-america-diaries">
 here
 </a>
 , and check back regularly throughout this month to read about the trip.


 Peace,
 
 Alice

Introducing the official Foldscope blog series: The South America Diaries

It’s currently 6 in the morning and I have a severe case of jet lag. After a two-week road trip in Hokkaido, Japan, I come back with some samples of my travels, in Foldscope form. I took as many samples as I had slides to carry, and some turned out great while others didn’t show much. Here are just a few of my favorites:


 I found this butterfly wing as roadkill. It was stuck to the front of our rental car, and I’d always wanted to see what a butterfly wing looked like. Surprisingly, it looks like a bunch of tiny “feathers” made of chitin stuck to one another. You can see the different pigmentation of the wings in the video, which is what gives the butterfly’s wings a pattern.

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
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 <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="563" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/131742728" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="1000">
 </iframe>
 </div>
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 Moving on to my next sample. I went to a flower garden called Farm Tomita during my trip. The grounds were covered in hundreds of different flowers, and I picked a small flower that was purple. Its species is
 
 Salvia pretenses
 
 and is commonly known as sage. I filmed the length of the flower. Take note of the little lobes (the “hairy” structures inside the flower) and the structure of the stem (and lack thereof of both pigmentation and organelles).

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
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 That’s it for now. I’ll be back soon with more Foldscoping adventures. I have to admit, this was a lot better than laying in my room not being able to sleep.




 
 Alice

Adventures in Japan

Below is a documentation of our mosquito hunting trip at Prakash Labs. We went out to a semi-remote area near the lab to gather mosquito data for data collection and experiments. There were quite a few of mosquitos in the woods, and by 8:30 we had plenty specimen to test.


 I took a few mosquitos back to the lab and made Foldscope slides to examine them. In the picture below, the mosquito in the top slide is dead while the one on the bottom slide is still wiggling around:


 <a alt="IMG_8485.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8485.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8485" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7142 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7142" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8485" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8485.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Here’s a picture of the mosquito’s wing:


 <a alt="IMG_8487.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8487.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8487" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7143 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7143" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8487" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8487.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 And abdominal area:
 
 <a alt="IMG_8491.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8491.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8491" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7144 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7144" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8491" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8491.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 <a alt="IMG_8494.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8494.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8494" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7145 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7145" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8494" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7140/IMG_8494.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Finally, I recorded a video of the living mosquito. You can see it sporadically twitching and the intricacies of its anatomy. I liked how the video captured the entire mosquito, so you can see how its different parts are shaped to fit function. The wings are transparent and web-like while the abdomen is filled with abdominal fluid and the legs are covered with tiny hairs.

<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper">
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 Alice

Mosquito Hunting

During another field day at the lab, a few of us went to explore the microscopic cosmos at Half Moon Bay. Below is a documentation of the beach creatures we took samples of. But first, here’s a picture of the interns and Jim at San Gregorio beach:


 <a alt="IMG_8564.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8564.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8564" class="size-medium wp-image-7218 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7218" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8564" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8564.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 This is an aerial shot of the samples that we took.  On the left is a semi-squished sample of a sea worm that we found. The second to the left is seaweed, then a feather, a tiny crab leg, and another part of seaweed on the right:


 <a alt="IMG_8586.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8586.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8586" class="size-medium wp-image-7219 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7219" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8586" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8586.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Up close, the seaweed is vibrant and red and there are gradients of thickness so the light entering the seaweed is different.


 <a alt="IMG_8597.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8597.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8597" class="size-medium wp-image-7220 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7220" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8597" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8597.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 The crab leg also has some interesting textures. The picture below is of the tiny hairs that protrude from the legs. Under the microscope it is considerably more structured and hard than what a normal human hair looks like:


 <a alt="IMG_8589.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8589.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8589" class="size-medium wp-image-7221 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7221" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8589" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8589.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 We also found a bird feather on the beach, so here’s a sample of its cross-hatched patterning:
 
 <a alt="IMG_8601.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8601.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8601" class="size-medium wp-image-7222 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7222" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8601" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8601.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 Now the most exciting part is the video. As per tradition, we took a video of the living sea worm. You can see it wriggling around and since its body is almost translucent, you can see its inner organs and fluids contracting with its movement. Here’s our setup:


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 <img alt="IMG_8593" class="size-medium wp-image-7223 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7223" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8593" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7203/IMG_8593.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 And the video:

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 Alice/Antonio/Mark/Jim

Half Moon Bay Foldscoping

In a stunning turn of events, the Prakash Lab has taken a temporary leave from the mosquito hunting grounds and come across bigger and…drier locations: Stanford’s Lake Lagunita. The lake is currently parched right now, so we went inside to take a better look at the organisms living in this microcosm. Here’s Part 1 of our adventure:


 I caught a grasshopper and amputated its limbs to take a closer look at their form. Grasshoppers perform stridulation by rubbing their legs to their bodies to create mating calls. I wanted to see if we could see any of the tympanum (it’s hearing structure) in the leg. I had some trouble locating the tympanum, but took some pictures along the way.


 A picture of the slide:


 <a alt="IMG_8825.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8825.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8825" class="size-medium wp-image-7611 aligncenter gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7611" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8825" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8825.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>


 Here’s an interesting structure at the end of its leg. You can see that its claw-like for gripping.




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 <img alt="IMG_8836" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7612 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7612" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8836" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8836.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>




 There’s scaly texture in the legs as well as muscle striations:




 <a alt="IMG_8839.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8839.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8839" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7613 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7613" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8839" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8839.jpg" width="300"/>
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 I also found a small spider in a bag of leaves that I brought back to the lab. The pictures here show the spider’s physiology particularly well.




 A picture of the slide for size:




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 <img alt="IMG_8823" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7614 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7614" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8823" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8823.jpg" width="300"/>
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 A zoomed-out view of the spider’s abdomen:




 <a alt="IMG_8830.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8830.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8830" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7615 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7615" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8830" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8830.jpg" width="300"/>
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 You can see the fine sensory hairs here:




 <a alt="IMG_8828.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8828.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8828" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7616 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7616" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8828" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8828.jpg" width="300"/>
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 And a closeup:




 <a alt="IMG_8827.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8827.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_8827" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7617 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="7617" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_8827" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_7610/IMG_8827.jpg" width="300"/>
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 The detail of the structures are fascinating since the term “form fits function” is identifiable in many of the images. Taking samples in the field gives you a different perspective on the surrounding environment. It’s really easy to bring your Foldscope and conduct similar field trips like we did. Don’t forget to post your trips!




 
 Alice

&#8220;Scoping&#8221; out Lake Lagunita

Interns and Tom at the Prakash Lab conducted experiments with single-celled Tetrahymena cultures provided by Cornell University’s ASSET kits. Tetrahymena are ciliated protozoans that freely swim and can take up nutrients via their mouth. The dye enters the body in a food vacuole and is broken down by the cell’s lysosomes which allows for the “food” nutrients to be absorbed. In this experiment, we fed Tetrahymena India ink and observed tiny ink pods make their way into the cells.


 Here is a picture of Tetrahymena imaged with Foldscope. Can you identify the ink pods?


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 Here is a short video of the Tetrahymena cultures after they have been introduced to the India ink. You can see the ink pods in each individual culture. We added a detaining medium into the culture in order to slow down the activity of the culture in order to get a better visual of their movements.



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 Alice, Antonio, Tom

Alice Dai

Earth

Posts

Mosquito Hunting

Half Moon Bay Foldscoping

“Scoping” out Lake Lagunita

Tetrahymena Cultures

Foldscoping in the classroom: C. “Elegants” (not a typo)

Foldscoping in the classroom: Name that protist! Vorticella?

Foldscoping in the Classroom: Serendipitous Rotifer

Under the sea: Mystery shrimp and footy mollusks

Orange flower

Garden leaf

Introducing the official Foldscope blog series: The South America Diaries

Adventures in Japan

Mosquito Hunting

Half Moon Bay Foldscoping

“Scoping” out Lake Lagunita

Tetrahymena Cultures

Foldscoping in the classroom: C. “Elegants” (not a typo)

Foldscoping in the classroom: Name that protist! Vorticella?

Foldscoping in the Classroom: Serendipitous Rotifer

Under the sea: Mystery shrimp and footy mollusks

Orange flower

Garden leaf

Introducing the official Foldscope blog series: The South America Diaries

Adventures in Japan

Mosquito Hunting

Half Moon Bay Foldscoping

“Scoping” out Lake Lagunita

Tetrahymena Cultures

Locations

Statistics

Type of Sample

Foldscope Lens Magnification