Watching individual bacteria in a 300 year old pond

May 30, 2018 • 2:57 AM UTC

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140x Magnification

Microorganisms

Manu Prakash

I am a faculty at Stanford and run the Prakash Lab at Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Foldscope community is at the heart of our Frugal Science movement - and I can not tell you how proud I am of this community and grassroots movement. Find our work here: http://prakashlab.stanford.edu

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Sometimes; wonder awaits you in seemingly quiet places. Walking up to a 300 year old pond that is fed by a stream under water is one such quiet place. But a lot is happening in this ecosystem that’s right below the surface. A quick drop of water fro here into my foldscope – and you would be convinced what an incredible microscopic rain forest we have right under our feet.

I will write a detailed post soon – but let’s see how many different bacteria and ciliates can you identify in these few videos (comment section below). Look out for the helical cork screw swimmer.
For techniques, I am just using a table lamp as my light source and a standard Foldscope (out of a BCK kit). As I angle the foldscope with respect to the table lamp; I can generate various contrast mechanisms. For more details on this angular illumination – also see my old post at http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=16093
Here is a quick video of the setup itself.