What Lies Beneath the Beach?
Mar 21, 2025 • 10:10 AM UTC
India
140x Magnification
Microorganisms
Avanish
Adding experiences to STEM Education | Works @ Tata Institute of Social Sciences | STEM Training Facilitator X, Insta, Linkedin @avanishutsav
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Nature offers us a space as a living laboratory. There is so much happening around at macro and micro levels to observe and get absorbed in it. However, some tools and techniques can just exponentially enhance what is available to observe. Foldscope is one such tool that came to my life three years back and I had the opportunity to travel to length and breadth of the country through hundreds of workshops.
I was fortunate to be with Professor Manu Prakash for around 4 days during his Mumbai visit. It was enriching observing his approach of observation and exploration. Here is one such cool example of observing a soil sample from the beach.
Going Beyond the Surface: The Coring Technique
What is on the surface can be simple sampled and observed under foldscope but what all is there at different layers under the surface can be observed using a technique that we can call coring. It is a simple technique where you use a open bottle(better if cylindrical) and push it upside down into the ground and take out the sample.
Here, the two images indicate the process where my friend Rafikh ( part of foldscope community) is taking a sample.
I was fortunate to be with Professor Manu Prakash for around 4 days during his Mumbai visit. It was enriching observing his approach of observation and exploration. Here is one such cool example of observing a soil sample from the beach.
Going Beyond the Surface: The Coring Technique
What is on the surface can be simple sampled and observed under foldscope but what all is there at different layers under the surface can be observed using a technique that we can call coring. It is a simple technique where you use a open bottle(better if cylindrical) and push it upside down into the ground and take out the sample.
Here, the two images indicate the process where my friend Rafikh ( part of foldscope community) is taking a sample.
I am taking the sample from the bottom layer of the sample and observing it. Here are some images. Along with beautiful sand crystals and I can see Foraminiferas(circled), some fibre though seems like some natural fibre, and one sac like jelly or some crystal is also there which makes me wonder what it can be but I am unable to recognise it so far.
This sample is at the depth of around 10 cms. I am ye to see if there is something more exciting is going to come up at different levels say 5 Cms or 7 Cms. Will post it here again soon.
Happy Foldscopy!!!
Keep Observing, Keep Exploring.
Happy Foldscopy!!!
Keep Observing, Keep Exploring.
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