Two Blueys Down Under: Microalgae Microscopy

I spent my first week in the lab basically going through induction (lab safety and other protocol) and learning how to use Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy. The optical physics are quite complex, but essentially it uses polarized light to create enhanced contrast and almost a three dimensional effect.

The following are some diatoms I photographed using a DIC microscope and a digital camera connected to computer software:

These were taken at 40X. Beautiful aren't they?? These were taken from prepared slides.

Today I went to some marine tanks on campus and learned to collect and prepare my own slides. I scraped a little sand off the bottom of a tank with some water in a vial and took it to a microscope.

I couldn't believe my eyes!! What appeared as ordinary salt water with a bit of sand was harboring a whole universe of swimming, twisting, moving, intricately shaped things! I saw tons of diatoms, as well as cyanobacteria, nematobes, and some microscopic shelled creatures.Beautiful!

Then I killed them.

I added a drop of Lugol's iodine soluiton and my universe stopped moving. The creatures were now fixed and preserved. I snapped some photos. Here's a lovely cyanobacteria. I took a picture using three different techniques: brightfield, darkfield, and DIC.