This was originally a Paramecium Multi bowl cultured on 9.3.26 with spring water and wheat seeds. None of the other bowls from this date turned a blood red color. There is clearly a fungal mold growing on top. What could have made it turn into this red color?

There are no Paramecium in it anymore, but there are a bunch of dinoflagellates swimming around in the bowl.

The seeds turned red and seems to be a clumpy bacteria around them. Not stringy or any other texture.

Hello everyone, I’m starting a lab and would ideally like to purchase 3-4 stereo microscopes for identifying aquatic macroinvertebrates and then 1 or 2 compound microscopes. I'd love at least one mid-tier stereo microscope with a camera and a screen and one compound microscope with the same features (budget ~$6k for each). I've only ever used older microscopes (e.g., Leica S6E). The Leica works great, and I got it used off eBay several years ago (I think for $1500), but I’d like something with more zoom for the hard-to-see characteristics as the Leica zoom tops out at 40X.

Does anyone have recommendations on the mid-tier stereo (max total zoom >40X) and compound microscopes with a camera and possibly a screen? Would it be cheaper to just connect the camera to a computer screen?

Are there any new (to avoid hunting) or used stereo microscopes you would recommend in the $500 – 2000 range that would be suitable for invertebrates and have a zoom range of ~5 – 40X?

I've used Dolan Jenner goose-neck light sources in the past for the stereo microscopes, but if there's something better I'd definitely like to know.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I’m having trouble with high background when imaging immunofluorescence staining for synaptic markers by confocal microscopy. The background makes it difficult to distinguish individual synaptic puncta confidently, and I’m concerned about how this might affect quantification.
I’d appreciate any advice on how to troubleshoot this and work out whether the background is mainly related to the staining, tissue autofluorescence, or imaging settings.

I brought these slides back from Germany, where I was learning the staining protocol. The staining looked much cleaner when we imaged them there, but I’m now seeing a lot of background when imaging the same slides at my home institution.

Here is also one representative image after deconvolution in Imaris.

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Bought big red apples at grocery store, and got an idea to look at one a little bit closer.

Made several sections using cheap microtome from AliExpress, and examined them with my microscope.

Turned out, the apples are covered in continuous wax cuticle, of circa 20 microns thickness, which is smooth on the outside, but hides a rough surface, as epidermal cells protrude into it somewhat.

There are a couple of layers of pigmented cells, under which starts fleshy part of the apple.

There is no sharp transition between skin and flesh of apple, going from skin inward cells become bigger, and pores are opened between them.

Images captured via 20x objective lens, 0.5x reducer and 5Mp usb webcam.

Focus stacking using Zerene Stacker.

Gif animation using ezgif.com free online tool.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24

Nikon D5300 + tube macro + 35 80mm f4.5

THE CLOSER, THE STRANGER

We draw closer, thinking we'll see more. Yet some distances help us see things for what they are, while others leave us unable to tell what we're looking at.

Same subjects. Different distances. Different worlds.

#MacroPhotography #ExtremeMacro #NaturePhotography #Perspective

Experimenting with some dark field and Rheinberg filters. On an off for comparison. Paramecium, stentor, and volvox.