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

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!

1000X

dried tap water

400X

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!

400X

1000X

1000X oil

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.

1000X oil

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

1000X oil





1000X oil

400X



1000X oil

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

1000X oil



1000X oil



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