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. 

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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

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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

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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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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.