Greetings all!

Long time since my first post, and I have a backlog of Foldscope images and experiences to upload! This week, we introduced Foldscopes at the Children’s School of Science in Woods Hole, MA, in the Microbial Life class taught by Tara Bennett. The folding session went well, and then we brought Foldscopes into the field and saw some ciliates and diatoms! Images on the way, but for now, I am rapt by rotifers.

As we practiced with our Foldscopes before the start of class, Chris Field, Duncan Mitchison-Field, and I had a look at a sample collected from a stagnant puddle. We used a transfer pipette to billow up some sediment, so our sample contained some particulates. We searched a bit for motion, and this lovely creature greeted us!

We all shouted in excitement. Its motions were fascinating. It could extrude both its head and its tail, elongate its entire body, and turn around. We think it might have been eating, but we are not sure. Somehow it reminded me of a sea lion!

After some search, we identified the creature as a rotifer. I had heard the name before, but never saw one and knew nothing about them. I started to read about them, and they are quite incredible! The Wonderfully Weird World of Rotifers mentions over 2000 known species. One even has “the appearance of a heavily armored Klingon warship.” Like Pokémon Go, I want to find more!

On the technical side, I look forward to practicing focus locking as described by Manu and others.

Talk to you soon!

James, Chris, and Duncan