#microoganisms

cc: "Hi, hello. It's me again, Deboki, writer and occasional host for Journey to the Microcosmos. I am here to confess something kind of shameful to you all: the first time I saw a picture of a tardigrade, I didn't think it was real. I just remember looking at this animal that looked like a cross between a dog and the Michelin Man. It was even more strange to conceive of how tiny it is, and that out there in the world are just bits of moss with animals like this one gliding through them. Now that I've spent some more time in the microcosmos, tardigrades seem almost normal."

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Diversity of Shapes in the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"If the word "bursaria" sounds familiar to you, it might be thanks to Paramecium bursaria, another ciliate that we've come across in our journey though the microcosmos. While Bursaria and Paramecium bursaria are technically related in the sense that they're both ciliates, they are not closely related. A Bursaria will absolutely go ahead and eat a paramecium when it feels like it."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Bursaria: Giant Gravity-Sensing Vacuums

By holding his brass microscope toward a source of light, van Leeuwenhoek was able to observe living organisms too small to be seen with the unaided eye.

The specimen was placed on the tip of the adjustable point and viewed from the other side through the tiny, nearly spherical lens. The highest magnification possible with his microscopes was about 3003 (times).

Some of van Leeuwenhoek’s drawings of bacteria were made in 1683. The letters represent various shapes of bacteria. C–D represents a path of motion he observed

"This isn't our first time diving into the world of hydras, but there were a lot of details about them that we could only talk about before, we couldn't acctually see them. Now, with the upgrades we've made to our microscope, there's a whole new world inside of hydras for us to see."

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Beautiful, Brutal Tentacles of Hydra

"Of course, these shapes aren't just for fun. An organism's shape is connected to the world it lives in, though sometimes the factors shaping them are beyond our understanding. It can be difficult at times to narrow down why a microbe takes on a particular shape when the reality of the microcosmos is that in any environment, you can find a whole plethora of shapes that might seem to have nothing in common."

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Diversity of Shapes in the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

cc: "When it comes to moving, ciliates are spectacular to watch. Their hair-like cilia beat in waves that steer them around the microcosmos, and that's great if you're trying to get from Point A to Point B. But sometimes you're not actually trying to get anywhere. You're just trying to be slightly less in the spot you are currently in."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Flinching Saves Lives in the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs