Nanoscape

Celestial or Anthropogenic... either way it is fun to find and look at these little magnetic spheres found on the roof. They are likely not #micrometeorites too common and homogenous would be my guess. Still it is a fun process to explore, and image the results. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5YybySFHW8/?igshid=1b98skjm2qiys

A Smaller Celestial body... Perhaps. I followed the protocol that Jon Larsen talks about with Project Stardust. I heard his keynote speech at @microscopysociety in Baltimore and have wanted to give it a go to look to see what I could find. The roof above us was clean, but there were a few drains with some sediment around them and the magnet found a good bit of random tiny junk. I used two sizes of netwells to sort the debris. I did a water wash with one sample and just a dry sort with another. Picked out 12 or so in various sizes (see stories for cellphone/ocular lens snaps). Are they #micrometeorites perhaps. Are they an extremely low fraction of the sediment up there? Yes. Are they really cool? Yes! #micrometeorite or not, the process is hands on and exploratory. And there's something fun and new to put in the @thermosciemspec Apreo. T1 is the BSE image T2 is mostly the SE image (in-lens detectors). I had 5 min to image so they are just rough sketches as far as SEM images go. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5WWbnZFAld/?igshid=1jy35917d67ce

Celestial body? Perhaps. I followed the protocol that Jon Larsen talks about with Project Stardust. I heard his keynote speech at @microscopysociety in Baltimore and have wanted to give it a go to look to see what I could find. The roof above us was clean, but there were a few drains with some sediment around them and the magnet found a good bit of random tiny junk. I used two sizes of netwells to sort the debris. I did a water wash with one sample and just a dry sort with another. Picked out 12 or so in various sizes (see stories for cellphone/ocular lens snaps). Are they #micrometeorites perhaps. Are they an extremely low fraction of the sediment up there? Yes. Are they really cool? Yes! #micrometeorite or not, the process is hands on and exploratory. And there's something fun and new to put in the @thermosciemspec Apreo. T1 is the BSE image T2 is mostly the SE image (in-lens detectors). I had 5 min to image so they are just rough sketches as far as SEM images go. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5WVnEYF95i/?igshid=2npmykntvx37

Same sample. Imaged with reflected light and then with electrons. The photon image was captured on a Zeiss Lumar V12 using the Zeiss Mrc5 camera of the wet sample on the filter membrane. Scale bar on the bottom. The SEM image is the T2 (mostly secondary electrons) in-lens detector on the Apreo, conditions and scale information on the databar. What is it? #algae ? I've seen it on someone's feed recently here on IG, but can't find it at the moment. But it was striking and since it was such a distinctive feature I wanted to explore looking at it in both ways. Yes perhaps having a transmitted light image instead of the reflected one might be better/more conventional, but I think this works. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2DPm3XBOHU/?igshid=15nah35gt2b0m

Another unknown. The wonder of finding new things every time you look is exciting. What is this, I don't know but I think it is really cool. Unfixed, air dried, filtered from Eisenhower Lake, Rhode Island, USA. Collected on 2019-08-30 HFW = 180 μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B2AsrmwhuVA/?igshid=12unwnpvplybe

The wonder of discovering new things never gets old. This may be the subject of someone's dissertation, or a well known indicator species, but I've never seen anything like it before. I think that is one of the exciting parts of looking at these water samples. What am I going to find? Will post one or two more from this batch. I collected a small bit of water from the Eisenhower Lake on the URI Alton Jones campus on Friday last week. These are a few of the unfixed, air dried samples. Fixed, ones are drying now, the submerged aquatic plant still has to go through the ETOH dehydration and critical point drying. HFW = 58 μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Ap3uxBn1C/?igshid=xn7aamprahlu

Bacteria on a diatom. Another view of the #biofilm on the underside of the Duckweed. Horizontal Field Width = 25μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zI5p7BCyi/?igshid=m7unz9vsycrr

Duckweed #biofilms #diatoms and other organisms Horizontal Field Width = 25μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zIavihGT6/?igshid=r283wzceb5yr

Biofilm diversity is fascinating. The number of different unique organisms in this 60μm wide field of view is astounding. A different session looking at the same samples with similar/same conditions. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1xMVPrhfJr/?igshid=15p4t5s7quxes

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 7th of 7 in this series Go back to the previous post and see if you can find this one on it. A bit of #whereswaldo game. Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 80μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1t4E3ghI_h/?igshid=vb8phfad5z9

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 6th of many Full view of the underside. In this mode on the SEM there's a bit of field distortion, but take a look at the next image as a bit of scale and perspective and why I chose this, not just to provide a bit of reference... Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 2mm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1t3xYqBTcF/?igshid=e3wcnfiadouy

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 5th of many Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 260μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1pev-SBAkM/?igshid=izvc5ddm3mjd

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 4th of many Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 138μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1peRlRhe7r/?igshid=3ccgh0bx8rxt

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 3rd of many Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 60μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1h0FEjh-W5/?igshid=1c375llhma8gm

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 2nd of many Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 60μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1hzz6NhrST/?igshid=1xwe3xniwxlc2

Biofilm on the underside of Duckweed (Lemna minor) 1st of many Fixed in Karnovsky's, dehydrated with ETOH, then critically point dried, mounted on subs and coated with 2 min of AuPd 60:40 (roughly 12-14nm on a polished flat surface). Imaged at 2kV using the Trinity detectors. These are just the T2 images. Same collection that the previous #diatoms were filtered from. Horizontal Field Width = 260μm https://www.instagram.com/p/B1hzg8Chs7X/?igshid=jm1ica5wdy96

More Diatoms. Different but related species to the last one perhaps? Thank you @mendezestay and @stefani__28 for the ID on the last post. What is a #diatom anyway? They are single-celled alga (photosynthetic organisms kind of like plants) that make a cell wall of silica instead of cellulose. They can be motile, they can form a biofilm or just float around in the water. And they are incredibly diverse in shapes. T2 detector on the @thermosciemspec Apreo https://www.instagram.com/p/B1PcMhxBjC4/?igshid=khlnp1viabtj