Under the Microscope

[Selkielass]

Very cool.
is fecasol the flotation solution?
That article makes it sound pretty simple.
Do you have a book or chart with pictures of common parasites for comparison?

[guidofatherof5]

Very cool. Yes
is fecasol the flotation solution? Yes
That article makes it sound pretty simple.
Do you have a book or chart with pictures of common parasites for comparison?Yes

This website has a lot of good prices on very interesting/useful items.
Chart Store

[chris-uk]

The blood samples show the bi-concave structure of the red blood corpuscles fairly clearly without stain. I think I pointed you in the direction of some stains earlier, so hopefully you can find some H&E stains and read up on the staining technique (I've not done it for a long time, but looking forward to Joseph getting older as an excuse).

[ConcinusMan]

I don't have any in my hand at this time but should be able to get some upon request.
I'll see if I can shoot some video when I do it.

Oh, please, oh please do post the pooping video and make sure the audio catches that "squish" sound like Stefan's video did. Goody goody.

No, but seriously, just some pics of microorganisms in the poop will do just fine. Then you could always try your own poop too. Or, a cheek swab. We did the latter in high school. It was surprising how many things are alive in your mouth, some of them quite nasty looking.

Almost straight from the garter's *** onto a slide. Shot through a cheap USB microscope.

Wow, look at 'em go! They seem to be in a huge hurry to get nowhere.

[guidofatherof5]

Had a food fight between a couple T.marcianus - Checkered Garter so a blood sample wasn't too difficult to obtain. The drop was recovered from a piece painted wood in the enclosure. I retrieved it with a disposable eye dropper. After placing it on the slide I used a cover slide. I'm guessing temperature change and cover plate pressure caused the movement in the video.

[jwolfe152]

wow this whole post is very interesting, i love microscopes, i have one but its not very powerful it was from some kind of drilling company looking at rocks and such. i looked at all kinds of spiders and other bugs/insects. its amazing how stuff looks close up, even ashes from a cigarette.

[chris-uk]

Some good images there Steve.

I should correct you on the title in the video though. You're not looking a platelets, you're looking at red blood corpuscles. The pictures show the bi-concave disk very clearly.

Regarding the movement, you get a small degree of cell movement in the plasma purely because the cells can move within the fluid. It looks like simple Brownian motion - Brownian motion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks Chris. I will get a mod. to correct the title and thanks for the link.