Skin cells, flower petals and hairy wings- these are a few of my favourite things!
Apr 14, 2024 • 9:54 PM UTC
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May Mo110
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I finally broke out my Foldscope this weekend to show a couple of friends who are studying Economics and my boyfriend (who happens to be a molecular biologist) how it works.
I started by showing them a piece of a petal from flowers I had received a week ago. We saw some green 'veins' which I thought were stratified groups of chloroplasts. A quick Bing search later determined that we had identified vascular tissue within the petals (xylem and phloem) as well as pigmented cells that gave the petals their pastel pink/cream colour.
I started by showing them a piece of a petal from flowers I had received a week ago. We saw some green 'veins' which I thought were stratified groups of chloroplasts. A quick Bing search later determined that we had identified vascular tissue within the petals (xylem and phloem) as well as pigmented cells that gave the petals their pastel pink/cream colour.
(excuse the quality, I forgot to take a photo once I had adjusted the focus ramp)
Next, we looked at the wing of a housefly. This slide was premade and was given to me by my lecturer who gifted us with the Foldscope set. We had lots of fun looking at the wing, and my friends and I were very surprised to learn that fly wings do indeed have hair- similar to the hair on the skin surface of us humans!
Next, we looked at the wing of a housefly. This slide was premade and was given to me by my lecturer who gifted us with the Foldscope set. We had lots of fun looking at the wing, and my friends and I were very surprised to learn that fly wings do indeed have hair- similar to the hair on the skin surface of us humans!
My boyfriend and I ended our exploratory microscope session by looking at skin tissue under the Foldscope. This was rather challenging as we could not get thin enough slices, but we did see some hair on the periphery of the piece of skin we extracted.
Overall, everyone really enjoyed viewing the different samples using the Foldscope. We all learned quite a bit about insect and plant biology- fields that none of us are in, so it was really cool to discover some more information about the environments in which we live and interact every day!
I'm not sure who was more impressed by this simple yet charming paper construct- the biologists or the business analysts😅
I'm not sure who was more impressed by this simple yet charming paper construct- the biologists or the business analysts😅
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