#stentor polymorphus

"Now we don't usually do math on this channel, but this is one of the rare cases where the math and optics is straightforward. In our microscope, the eyepiece has a magnification of 10x, so if we're looking through a 63x objective, the final magnification is 630x. That is the number you'll see in the corner."

Journey to the Microcosmos- We Dipped Our Lens in Oil to See More Detail

"While toxins are a great defensive option to have, if you're a spirostomum or any other ciliate, you probably don't want to get to the point where you need to be vomited up. Plus, even if you've managed to evade the same predator again and again like spirostomum has, there's plenty of other obstaccles to avoid in the microcosmos. Like poop."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Flinching Saves Lives in the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

“Today we're back with another round of your questions! We've got questions about microbes, questions about how James, our Master of Microscopes takes care of microbes, and questions about how we make these videos. Some of these things we've seen come up frequently in comments, and others are questions sent in via Twitter, Patreon, and Instagram. So thank you to everyone who's been commenting and asking questions, we couldn't do any of this without your shared excitement for all things microcosmos. And every one of your comments and questions steers this channel on our journey.”

Journey to the Microcosmos- Why Did We Start This Channel? (And Other Questions You've Been Asking)

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

"To get from one of these images to the other, James--our master of microscopes--didn't change any of the technical settings on his microscope or pull some kind of video editing wizardry. He just simply added a drop of oil to the coverslip encasing the glaucoma, and dipped the objective into the oil. Now this is because the cone of light going from the specimen into the objective isn't just going straight from the sample to the lens. It's passing through something--it's pass through air."

Journey to the Microcosmos- We Dipped Our Lens in Oil to See More Detail

"The thing about making things larger is that at some point, it's not enough to just zoom in. You need to be able to captured the detail that's there. This leads to the second important number you'll find on an objective lens: the numerical aperture. Unlike magnification, "numberical aperture" is probably not super self-explanatory."

Journey to the Microcosmos-We Dipped Our Lens in Oil to See More Detail

"Now again, whatever the change is for the organism thought, one of the things these species share in common is that the contractions are very, very fast--so much so that it's taken high speed cinematography for scientists to start to figure out how it works. Stentors, spriostomum, and vorticella all condense to fractions of their original length in a matter of milliseconds. A contracting spirostomum can experience forces of around 14g. For comparison, an elite fighter pilot doesn't ever experience more than 9 gs of force. For vorticella, the rapid contraction of their stalk moves them at about 1200 body lengths per second. That is very fast. That's the equivalent of a cheetah running a mile in a second."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Flinching Saves Lives in the Microcosmos

"So much work went into understanding the timeline of this one narrow process in [cilia] regeneration, and there is still so much mechanical mystery underlying it. Not to mention all the other feats of regenerative prowess that stentors casually perform on a regular basis. But science is always advancing. And with all these mysteries to solve and more, stentors will likely find themselves at the center of many many other strange experiments and observations to come."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Strange Stentor Stories

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"For all of us on the Microcosmos team, Stentors are the gift that is always giving. They were the first organism we did a deep dive episode on because we wanted more people to get a chance to appreciate how magnificent this vey unappreciated unicellular organism is. And now with our fancy new DIC microscope, we've gotten the chance to appreciate their magnificence in new ways. It is amazing how changing bits of light can give you a new perspective."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Strange Stentor Stories

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs