Teresa Riedel

Below is a picture taken of a sample from the Turtle Pond at Caltech, taken in the afternoon of Wednesday, April 10, 2019. The TA’s of my recitation section collected the sample that morning and brought it to section.

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 <img alt="Bi1 Rec2 Foldscope" class="wp-image-143415 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="143415" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPod touch","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1554918310","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.3","iso":"640","shutter_speed":"0.066666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="Bi1 Rec2 Foldscope" data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_143413/Bi1-Rec2-Foldscope-1.jpg"/>
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 Picture taken of slide #1
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 I plated the sample on a slide and used my foldscope to take a picture of the sample. However, there were no living organisms on the slide. I plated another slide to try to get something interesting, but that attempt failed as well. Finally, I used my foldscope to examine a slide from another student in the class, and while my foldscope was working, there still weren’t any living organisms.


 The question I have regarding my picture is whether it is of a water drop or an air bubble. Since I put a decent amount of sample on my slide, there should be more water than air, so it would make sense if it were an air bubble. However, it looks more like a water droplet. If I still had the slide, I could examine it more deeply and see if I could determine the answer to my question.


 I also would like to know why neither of my slides had anything on them. Since the sample was taken from the Turtle Pond, there should have been something on at least one of my slides. This might imply that the sample was faulty. To see if my sample was faulty, I would have to get another sample and plate that. However, other students who used water from the same sample were able to find organisms, so I may have simply been unlucky.


 The magnification of my foldscope is 140x with 2 micron resolution from the 2.38mm lens.


 #caltechbi1

Bi1 Turtle Pond Water

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 <img alt="Foldscope 2 pic1" class="wp-image-147782 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="147782" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPod touch","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1557322150","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.3","iso":"25","shutter_speed":"0.0044444444444444","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="Foldscope 2 pic1" data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_147779/Foldscope-2-pic1.jpg"/>
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 Figure 1: Flower plant on southwest side of Bechtel Residence
 
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 At 1:29pm today (May 8, 2019), I picked a purple flower from one of the purple flower plants outside of the Becthel Residence (1280 E. Del Mar Blvd, Pasadena, CA). As shown in the picture above, the plant had a central structure with long stems and individual purple flowers. I tried to collect pollen from it (and a couple other flowers from different types of plants), but I couldn’t collect any. So, I decided to examine the anther, since that is the part of the stamen that produces the pollen.


 To get the anther, I peeled off the petals and took one of the stamen. From there, I picked the anther off the filament and mounted it onto my slide.

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 <img alt="Foldscope 2 pic2" class="wp-image-147783 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="147783" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPod touch","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1557323397","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.3","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.066666666666667","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="Foldscope 2 pic2" data-recalc-dims="1" height="491" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_147779/Foldscope-2-pic2.jpg" width="491"/>
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 Figure 2: Anther in the foldscope slide
 
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 The above shows what the anther looks like to the naked eye (although I did zoom in a little so that we can see the white fuzzy things around the outside of the anther). The short white stalk at the bottom is part of the filament that I couldn’t pick off. I am showing this picture because when I looked through my foldscope, since the rest of the anther is a dark purple, it appeared black. See below.

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 <img alt="Foldscope 2 pic3" class="wp-image-147784 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="147784" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPod touch","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1557323320","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.3","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.066666666666667","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="Foldscope 2 pic3" data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_147779/Foldscope-2-pic3.jpg"/>
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 Figure 3: Foldscope picture of the anther of my flower
 
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 As seen above, the main part of the anther (lower part of my picture) looks black. However, the white spikes are clearly visible. So, this image shows the anther, but the only parts that are really visible are the white parts surrounding the anther (as seen in Figure 2).


 I looked up different types of purple flowers, but couldn’t seem to find the specific species. So, my question for myself is what are the white parts of the anther? What purpose do they serve?


 If I knew the family or genus of the flower, I might be able to research more into how those types of flowers’ stamen work. Without that knowledge, I think that the white part might be where the pollen goes once it is made. Given that the flowers are fairly long and not very open (see Figure 1), the plant probably relies on insect pollination. So, it would make sense, especially given the shape of the white parts, that the pollen would congregate on a part of the anther for the insect to get.


 It also would be nice to try to examine the anther with a better microscope. Since the general magnification of the foldscope is limited, it would be interesting to examine the purple part of the anther under a microscope that will show the anther (instead of just looking black or having it take up the entire “screen” like on a foldscope).


 #caltechbi1

Teresa Riedel

Earth

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Bi1 Turtle Pond Water

Purple Flower Anther (A Bi1 Foldscope Exercise)

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