On September 17th 1683, van Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society describing moving ‘animals’ (bacteria) in the plaque between his teeth.

It struck me that today was sept 17th as well and as a tribute, I roped Matt (only person around) to help me find a toothpick and got to work.

If you watch the video above, you’ll realize that we don’t see any bacteria. I still decided to upload it, to encourage others to check their teeth and see if they have more success.

Interestingly, Leeuwenhoek himself didn’t see any moving bacteria till he mixed rain water/spittle with the white plaque.

If you read the whole article, you’ll notice that he finds bacteria in the teeth of 8 year olds. So if you are an 8 year old reading this, please upload your findings with teeth scrapings.

Upload even if not 8 year old.

UPDATE:

Manu collected some teeth scraping and sent me these beautiful videos.

I’ve added a screenshot to indicate where to focus your eye on in the accompanying video.