rotten salsa sauce and yeasts

There was a day when I left a jar of salsa in the fridge for a little... too long.. It turned out, I didn't have a hard time figuring out the salsa was way past the expiration date.

Now what you see in these pictures are giant packs of mold that grew from the sauce. This isn't much of a surprise because 1. The salsa was expired and 2. The salsa was part liquid, which allowed mold spores to settle as they favor damp surfaces. 

Now molds are able to grow from the hair-like structures called hyphae. The hyphae allow the mold to be called a multi-cellular structure as compared to yeasts that are referred to as single-cellular structures. The continuous growth of the mold is shown in the pictures here as hyphae continuously helps the fungi grow more and more.  

As compared to molds, the picture seen above represents yeasts. Unlike molds, they're single celled microorganisms belonging in the fungi kingdom.

brown dried leaf

So for those of you who have had houseplants before, there's a good chance your plants might've contained dried brown areas on the leaves.

back side

The main reason to why leaves lose their green color (as seen above) is because the chlorophyll actually break down. However, there are various reasons to what can cause houseplants to change their leaf colors to brown. Some of the reasons include giving too much/little water (which also explains why the leaf I examined was quite dry) and also not being humid enough.

front side

As seen here, the cells don't seem to display the chlorophyll a normal leaf would have. Since chlorophyll is why the leaf retains its green color, its clear as to why we are able to notice a dead leaf (like this one) in an instant. 

soap bubbles

Out of the many things we witness each and everyday, I think one of those definitely include soap and the bubbles it produces.

40X illuminator

To start, I might as well give a brief explanation of what soap is made of: generally formed by fats and oils. Solid fats actually help in solidifying the soap so that it retains its rectangular position until wet by water again.

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Now onto the topic of bubbles...there's a comparison I saw when researching that I found quite interesting. The bubbles are like our cells: they have the water repellent sides (in this case the soap) stick on the outside while the water attracting side is on the inside (which is actually just water here). The pictures seen above represent the triple layers bubbles produce. Using the illuminator, I was also able to reflect the light from the bubbles which is why the bubbles in the picture have shining edges.

yellow lily pollen

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For those of you first curious as to what yellow lily flowers are, they are plants with 6 large petals surrounding the anthers, also having the yellow color likely to attract other insects to pollinate.

The pictures seen here display a small amount of pollen from the flower.

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The arrow points to the pollen grains which the pollen shed. If you also don't know what pollen is exactly, the general definition is it's the male gametes of a flower and has the sole purpose of being spread to other flowers.

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Using oil immersion, I zoomed onto the pollen grains here and what interested me from the start was how even the smallest pollen grains retained the yellow color of the flower's pigment. 

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whey protein in the water

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since my last post but I'm finally back! Today we will be discussing something many people who workout at gyms consume: whey protein.

40X

If you didn't know this already, whey protein is actually just the leftovers of milk when it is processed into cheese. The reason why we take it is because of its amino acid rich benefits. Seen above is how whey looks at 40x  magnification and one significant fact I saw right away was how the particles don't actually clump. There are certain chemical compounds that prevent whey from clumping, one which is most widely known is lecithin.

400X

Under deeper magnification, circular rings are beginning to be seen more clearly. The first thought that came to me was that these are actually the protein whey is so famously known for. The reason I preceive this is because I learned certain proteins, when looked under the electron microscope, actually possess the oval/ring-like shape shown above and below. 

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It seemed when I conducted oil magnification, there wasn't much difference as to when I had first viewed the whey protein at 40x magnification. My assumption is the whey particles seen on the first picture are actually magnified a significant amount and further proves how there are no clumps when whey is mixed with water. 

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tea molds

So, unlike most of my posts, I decided adding how I was able to take pictures of the mold shown below. Because the original light emitted from the microscope cannot penetrate through the mold unless it is squished between a slide, I used an illuminator to shine the top and sides of the mold for a clearer view of the actual mold form.

The first picture shown above displays the illuminator lighting from the sides while this is displaying the illuminator brightening the mold through the tip. 

40X illuminator

Now for anyone wondering why mold has such a "hairy" appearance, the reason for this is because molds consist of hyphae which are thread-like filaments that form mycelium. Since there are so many hyphae creating mycelum, it ultimately looks as if it's a fuzzy ball. The next few pictures displays hyphae creating mycelium (the small "fluff-like" balls at the top).

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Now I was wondering why mold would form in tea but not in water. Since I left the tea inside my house to cool but also left the windows open, my guess is airborne spores came through the window and settled on the cooled down tea. Since there were likely some nutrients in the tea and there wasn't any competition, the molds began forming into the now large ball of fuzz.

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dried sweat

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I think we all know what sweat is, especially if we do any form of exercise because the sweat naturally comes out of our pores in the skin when our body becomes hot. When I dried sweat, I noticed I was able to see small bits of salt which were mixed with the water in the sweat!

house fly-body

With the dead housefly I found, I also investigated its body area. The wings above are called transparent wings and, because of the illuminater, seems to reflect a pinkish and greenish color. 

One significant fact you can notice here in these pictures is that the body consists of numerous hairs. The hairs are actually present for a variety of purposes including the dissipation of heat and the sense of touch.

cooked dried egg white

40X

Now some of you may not want to consume the white part of an egg but perhaps this post might change your mind!

400X

When viewing egg whites, I realized the majority of the slide tended to display bubbles and other visible structures indicating that water was present before the egg was cooked. The reason for this is because almost 90% of the water lies in the egg whites. Now the white part is important because over 50% of the egg's protein lies there! They also barely have any fats so there are quite a few benefits from consuming the egg whites!

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dried tap water

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As many of you may know, drinking directly from tap water may be bad for the body's health! The reason for this is because a variety of chemicals are added into the water to kill off any microorganisms living there. When I dried tap water, I noticed there were still substances existing where the water once was. My assumption is the image seen above is actually that of the many salts added into the water (arsenic, aluminum, and etc). It retains the cube-like structure which salts may also possess. 

battlefield of probiotics with mold

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It seems as though there are more soldiers who try to protect us from dangerous organisms!

When I put mold with probiotics the result was a fight between those two microorganisms. 

The next few pictures show probiotics fighting the (circular) molds!

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1000X

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What surprised me when seeing this was when the probiotics were defeated (which also shocked me), they died after grouping around the mold as if they wanted to form a blockade in order to prevent the mold from passing and harming other organisms.

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The "A" arrow indicates the mold while the "B" arrow indicates the swarming probiotics.

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400X



1000X oil

As seen here, the probiotics formed around the dark and oval-like molds even after dying! 

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1000X oil

house fly

If this makes you think of house flies in a different . . . scarier way, I do apologize for showing you a zoomed in picture of one!

One of the flies which entered my house happened to die after being trapped behind the window sill. Investigating it made me realize I could compare its features to other insects and animals I see everyday!

The pictures show the compound eyes of the flies which consist of thousands of individual visual receptors (ommatidia). The countless number of receptors shown here explain how flies are able to have a near 360 degree vision and can avoid danger such as our hands trying to swat them!

The antennae-like structure seen above is actually the fly's tongue, known as the labella. Flies use the labella to suck up liquids and also easily dissolve food particles.

bark of platanus tree

inside 40X illuminator

While taking a stroll across my neighborhood, I found a broken piece of bark from a plane (platanus) tree and thought it was only necessary to check it out under the microscope.

inside 100X illuminator 

Now, plane trees are widely known for being able to survive in small concrete areas in urban areas. The reason for this is because of the bark falling off the tree, causing harmful organisms and parasites to follow with it. Now what surprised me the most when checking this bark out was how spongy the inner layer seemed. While other commonly seen barks generally seem to consist of hole-like structures in the inner area of the bark, the plane tree seemed to hold white marble-like figures instead.

outside 40X illuminator

When feeling the bark, I noticed how it was comparable to a sponge because of its softness on the inside. In fact, the wavy structure in the bark seems to be similar to that of cardboard's inner area. Perhaps rather than using sheer creativity, science may create new inventions by copying what nature already offers!

outside 100x illuminator