styrofoam, known as Polystyrene

If you have seen my post on popcorn, then you will probably be a bit familiar with what I will be talking about for this post!

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So another word you may hear when talking about styrofoam is "polystyrene". The word comes from the fact that it is created from combining styrene which is not only used when creating products, but also exists naturally in many foods (such as strawberries and meat).

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When viewing this under the microscope, I was fascinated at how these bubblewrap-like materials are actually formed through threads and threads of monomers. It also interested me how popcorn also resembled this polymer, perhaps meaning popcorn also contains countless amounts of the monomer styrene!

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https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/polystyrene-post/

https://inhabitat.com/shocking-caribbean-photos-reveal-a-sea-of-plastic-and-styrofoam/

rotten white radish!

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At first glance, these pictures may only seem to be an artist's work. However, this is something you must avoid when seen on radish!

Various diseases occurring in radishes can cause the vegetable to rot, which is what happened to this plant here.

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Here, I thought pathogens invaded the white radish and caused areas to create irregular black blotches. After researching, the best assumption I could make is blight because this occurs in radishes by turning the roots black, also known as black root rot. This is also dangerous to have when farming radishes because, as of now, they are said to be incurable! Hopefully, a solution will be made in the future for this disease due to the threat it places on radishes if even one plant becomes infected.

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A layer of defense and colors.

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Now I know what you're thinking: "what is this? How is anything about this a "defense"? It looks more like a cloudy foam covering or millions of grains!".

Now, they're guesses but are ultimately incorrect ones. This is actually a seashell seen through its interior side.

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Now what fascinates me is how mollusks create their shells through only calcium carbonate and protein. As seen in the pictures, the shell is shown having a large area, implying the mollusk wasn't young because the exoskeleton grows with its mollusk.

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Even though the shell was already split (likely because a lucky octopus, starfish, or... human (me) happened to find the unlucky clam), I found it quite interesting how the sand from the ocean still stuck to the shell rather than eventually falling off of it.

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One other fact I found about these shells is that the layers/structures the mollusks make are intentional! For instance, when there is fierce predation where the mollusk lives, the shells may be formed with ridges or may just have a greater layer of exoskeleton than those in areas where less predation exists.

Sponge? Styrofoam?

Now I know what you're probably thinking: it's white styrofoam taken up close!
Though it is a good guess, it is an incorrect answer.
This is actually...

Popcorn!

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When popcorn is microwaved into a delicious snack, it turns out the outer white layer is quite similar in structure to the polystyrene foam we see in many places throughout our lives!

Popcorn actually has a small amount of water inside the hull. When it is microwaved, the water evaporates, causing pressure to rise and ultimately exploding the popcorn - thus creating the famous food for movies. 

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Good news!

Good news! A little while ago, I was on the school newspaper as the president of the Irvine Microscope Club (they were taking pictures the day I was showcasing what lipstick really contained)!