Foldscope live demo of living organism
Apr 14, 2016 • 12:44 AM UTC
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Saad Bhamla
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I had the opportunity last week to present in front of few dozen industrial scientists visiting stanford. The catch was I only had less than 10 minutes!
If I had to share one way that the foldscope really has changed the way I think about life :
I’d choose the fact that it provides a window into the physiology of tiny living organisms; their beautiful motions, dances and flows-a visceral reminder of the hallmark of life – that it is animate!
So, naturally I wanted to share this subtle, but personally important point. There were small challenges- preparing wet mounts, keeping organism alive and making sure the live projection from my iPhone to the big screen worked.
I took the risk (I had a couple backup slides) and everything turned out well. I’m sharing the video and a few images below in the hope of encouraging others to also share live demos; its tricky, requires preparation, but totally worth it!
If I had to share one way that the foldscope really has changed the way I think about life :
I’d choose the fact that it provides a window into the physiology of tiny living organisms; their beautiful motions, dances and flows-a visceral reminder of the hallmark of life – that it is animate!
So, naturally I wanted to share this subtle, but personally important point. There were small challenges- preparing wet mounts, keeping organism alive and making sure the live projection from my iPhone to the big screen worked.
I took the risk (I had a couple backup slides) and everything turned out well. I’m sharing the video and a few images below in the hope of encouraging others to also share live demos; its tricky, requires preparation, but totally worth it!
Dive in!
Note: the larvae is of Culex tarsalis. I may have bungled up the name in the heat of the moment.
And here is one more picture from the event.
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