Blood taken in December after my husband checked his blood sugar.
When we first received our Foldscope, my 9 year old son was ready to dive in. We anticipate this moment for months, with the rising questions of: What would we do? What would we see? Do you think we could research this? When we received our Foldscope in the mail the game was on. My son eagerly helped read directions and fold his way into a whole new world. After, we put the Foldscope together we decided our first image should be blood. Blood would be a great way to test our Foldscope and see an image that would create a colorful representation. After a quick review of aseptic technique, we carefully made a slide of my husbands blood after his glucose level was measured. We were fortunate to get several images from his sample. This moment was the beginning of many more to follow, as the whole family engaged on taking turns to see something not visualized in their everyday world. As with any slide, we filed it away with the other slides we started to accumulate. After, a few weeks we decided to check on the blood sample again. Truthfully, the sample looked empty and dried out. We were doubtful that we would get any images at all, but knowing the truth and definition of micro, we gave it a shot. The results were amazing and I am so glad we were able to take images before and after (below this post). Look at how the blood dried and cracked on the slide. Look at the difference of the images? What an amazing discovery to see the difference of the blood sample when it is freshly created on a slide and then analyzed a month later. Thank you Foldscope for giving us the tools to see the world in a whole new way. Having the Foldscope has allowed me to introduce my son into the micro world that I love studying so much. I am not sure what the diamond shaped object is, but we are having fun trying to find out. Until then…we are enjoying our adventures.
Blood re-analyzed on January 25, 2015