Caltech Pond Scum

Apr 08, 2019 • 9:48 PM UTC

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zafir

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An image of pond water obtained by the TAs earlier today from a pond on campus.

The sample was obtained between 8am and 8pm on 4/8/19, using a device capable of capturing water. A slide was then prepared by dropping the pond water on a transparent sheet, and the photo was taken through a foldscope using an iPhone – hence the poor quality.

The black spots are some sort of organism or dust particle in pond water, but this is difficult to tell from this image. Moving forward some questions I would like answered are:

What type of organism is in the photo, and how the image could be enhanced?
This could be some sort of plant matter, or even bacteria in the pond. The image could be enhanced using a real microscope.

What other microscopy technique could be used to view the sample in higher detail?
A higher magnification microscope could be used to view the sample in more detail, and better illumination techniques could help bring out details in the sample.

#caltechbi1