I’ve really been loving my microbiology class this semester. We’re constantly identifying bacteria and looking at various other microorganisms. A couple weeks ago I recorded a Vorticella feeding under one of our lab microscopes, using my camera (see bottom video below). Tonight I got out my video microscope and went on a treasure hunt around my apartment, mostly looking for microorganisms. I photographed a salt crystal, a strand of my hair, and an Arabidopsis seed (I’ve just begun working with Arabidopsis in my lab). You can view those still images in my Flickr account.
I didn’t find any organisms until I took a sample from some standing water beneath one of my orchids. There were a whole bunch of protozoa swimming around at high speed! I had to wait about half an hour for the water drop to mostly evaporate and therefore shrink the perimeter of movement for the protozoa, basically herding them into a smaller area that I could track with my microscope. However, as the water began to evaporate, some of the protozoa lysed and then they were all completely destroyed when the water drop completely evaporated! Check it out below…