Indoors:

When I first received my Foldscope, I went straight to the fridge and took a sample of double thick plain yoghurt. Given that yoghurt is made with bacteria such as Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, I knew that a non-biologist would be intrigued to see that!



When viewed under the Foldscope, yoghurt presents with several bacterial cells. The bacteria was extremely small, brown in colour and slightly resemble small pieces of hair. I showed this yoghurt sample under the Foldscope to my boyfriend and they were extremely shocked at how much bacteria there was since they eat yoghurt almost everyday. They understood that yoghurt was made out of bacteria and that it was good bacteria but they were shocked at how much there was in such a small sample.

They then brought my attention to the fact that some of the bacteria was moving in between the gaps. This prompted me to take a video of this and post it on here as well. I explained that the bacteria in yoghurt is alive and that is why it is probably moving between unoccupied areas. This was all very exciting to see !

Outdoors:

The next day we went swimming in the pool and happened to find a dead butterfly floating. I suggested we look at its wings under the Foldscope. The butterfly was orange and black.



Under the Foldscope, the wings of a butterfly presented with pigmented cells that were organised based on colour. We both could not see any intricate details of the individual cells. However, I emphasised to my boyfriend that it is very cool to see that all of the cells were similar in shape (water droplet-like) and size throughout, even though their colours were different.

My boyfriend also identified that there were hair follicles at the edge of the wings. I explained to them that these are know as the fringe of cilia.



My boyfriend said that they found everything about the Foldscope very interesting. They were pleased to have seen different cell types from the indoors and outdoors from which they would not have seen without the Foldscope. I am excited to identify, show and look at more organisms with my Foldscope.