Aussie Finch Forum

Hey folks,

Got the microscope out yesterday. I have Danny Brown's book, but I still don't know what I'm looking at

Here are some photos and my best guess of things that I'm looking at. I've included the magnification in the image title (I think 1 or 2 might even be wrong), but I have cropped some of the photos so the magnification size may be misleading. Please let me know if I have got any wrong or have any to worry about

Cheers
Ian

Red Arrow - starch, Green Arrow - unsure Same image as above Red Arrow - starch, Green Arrow - yeast?, Blue Arrow - Plant Material Red Arrow - plant material, Green Arrow - plant cell walls Green Arrow - unsure Green Arrow - spherical pollen?

Stop thinking so hard. It will make microscope work less boring. You won't get these right away (I've worked with vets of 20 years + experience who still can't use a microscope) but if your hearts in it and you make it enjoyable and you'll learn faster (or maybe I'm just seriously disturbed). I think your main issue is appreciating relative size - which is bigger that which. Urates are a good reference size, as are bacteria. Collect a tiny scoop of just urates and have a look at them on their own - get an appreciation of what something looks like away from all the crap. Do the same with some pollen, air bubbles, fine dirt, crushed up ants, smushy bread and the most fun one of all - green slimy pond water or a wipe of algae of the fish tank wall - its like Men in Black 4 in there.
Things that are present in their millions are usually normal unless you have a serious disease issue so lets go through the slides (Myzo, correct me where you see fit). Its a lot harder looking at someone elses pics so I may get some of these wrong
1. green arrow - damaged big pollen grain - distinct wall, crumply appearance like a deflating bag of air - parasites are proud of their appearance - they are mostly smooth and well groomed
red arrow - urates - common, often variable in size (parasites don't change sizes)
2. Look over to the right where the contrast is better and you'll see the spoke wheel crystalline structure of the urates much clearer.
3. Red arrow - urates, green arrow - air bubble, blue arrow correct . Focus up and down on the air bubble to check - as expected they will change in size and clarity as you focus as you are focussing on a sphere of air.
4. Correct
5. Bit out of focus but looks like a slightly rotated pollen grain - they are often quite dark and this looks like one of the mickey mouse pollens from above.
6.Looks like a single plant cell thats come adrift

Have fun
Danny

Thanks Danny, I really appreciate the feedback . Good tip about getting to know the background material

I guess its just a matter of doing it regularly enough to work out what is normal and what is unusual.

I'm also pretty happy with the quality of the photos, seeing as the are from a camera phone through the eye piece. If I get the time over the weekend i'll have a go at a few more.

Cheers
Ian

Looks like you're having fun with your home path lab. What stains and optical systems do you have? If you use potassium Iodide (IKI) starch will become blue/black and with polarised light the crystalline nature the starch in amyloplasts becomes apparent they often show a maltese cross. You can distinguish between plant cell walls and fungal/animal cell walls by using Lactophenol Cotton Blue as this will stain the proteinaceous walls of fungi but not the cellulose and silica walls of plants. There are many other different differential cytological stains but they are best prepared fresh and many are toxic and aren't the usual things you want to leave lying around the house. I wouldn't say that necessarily that parasites stand proud and pollen appears as a sad deflated sac. Certainly grass pollen is thin-walled and their exine (outer layer) is relatively smooth but the majority is more robust and the delicate surface sculpting of most pollens, particularly dicots, rivals the beautifully complex patterns on diatoms. I guess going by our training Danny sees beauty in parasites and I see beauty in pollen.

Not using any stains at the moment. I purchased a second hand Olympus with x4, x10, x40 and x100 objectives and a variety of eye piece magnifications, but I usually use the x10. I paid about $150 for it from memory. Only issues I have with it are that it uses an external light source and I haven't got the hang of using the binocular mode.

Great photos - actually amazing photos given you've used your phone down the eye piece. Someday I'll have a go. Presently they all look like swarms of minature jelly fish to me.

SamDavis wrote:Great photos - actually amazing photos given you've used your phone down the eye piece. Someday I'll have a go. Presently they all look like swarms of minature jelly fish to me.

Danny's book (and online feedback) is a great way to start.

thanks for sharing the photos iaos!
by the way what are you looking for?
are you diagnosing your birds droppings for parasites?.... sorry bit confused

i guess this is magnified way more than i was expecting.....
i'd like to see a pre and post slide of quarantine/worming treatment.

i expect one particular northern lizard man to chime in with "buy the book" about now.

COUNTRY CAPITAL wrote:thanks for sharing the photos iaos!
by the way what are you looking for?
are you diagnosing your birds droppings for parasites?.... sorry bit confused

i guess this is magnified way more than i was expecting.....
i'd like to see a pre and post slide of quarantine/worming treatment.

i expect one particular northern lizard man to chime in with "buy the book" about now.

No need to - he already has the book.

I got back on the microscope today. I just thought these plant cells looked pretty cool. One is 100x the other is 400x