dried sweat

400X

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

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

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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

1000X oil

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

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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

saliva of gum disease

40X

With a mere glance at the saliva, I thought there wasn't much to discover from the sample. However this quickly changed once I entered oil immersion.

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In the saliva, one key factor I noticed was how there seemed to be lots of plaque particles floating about the saliva. I remembered reading about how if someone has gingivitis, the bacteria in the plaque causes the gums to become inflamed. Since this is saliva coming from gum disease, I personally think the reason for the large amount of plaque can also be because the plaque was building up around the teeth and began falling off, possibly because they weren't cleaned.

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Though bacteria can't be seen in these pictures, I realized the excess amount of plaque in the saliva can eventually cause anaerobic bacteria to begin growing, a factor that may lead to gum disease!

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konjac sponge

Since my mother uses konjac sponge when washing her face, I checked it out to try and understand what was there that caused the sponge to have its popularity.

40Xilluminator+zoom
After some research, I realized the sponge actually comes from a konjac plant which can be used to improve skin health (even reduce acne). The fibers in the plant make up the sponge and it has a soft texture that won't hurt the skin.

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When using the illuminator, I noticed the surface of the sponge didn't display and rough marks or edges which could potentially harm the skin, explaining why the sponge is bragged for its smoothness!

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One other point I observed is how the sponge resembles cotton or paper and my guess for this is because the konjac sponge is also biodegradable, meaning over time the product is capable of breaking down into the raw materials nature possesses!

40Xilluminator +zoom

Bee pollen with water

40X

When viewing bee pollen from a far distance, the pollen all look similar in color and shape. However, it is soon shown to not be the case.

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As I zoomed into the pollen, what I realized was each grain held a different shape and structure: some being oval like and transparent while others were more circular with a brownish color filling the center.

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What I find really fascinating is that the variety of pollen indirectly shows how the bees carrying the pollen went to a variety of different plants to harvest the nectar. It can also be analyzed that the bees are living in an area where plant life is plentiful. 

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400X
When zooming in to 400x the normal size, I realized here the pollen began to display significant distinctions which I couldn't see when viewing through either the naked eye or with 40x magnification. It turns out scientists are still trying to figure out why pollen hold different shapes and sizes. The pollen microscope was also invented in order to capture images of sample pollen grains and identify their shapes, even if they are irregular.