How did I record this?
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Please enjoy this video made using my Razer Phone 2 and Nikon Eclipse E200 Student Microscope at 100x and 400x (10x, and 40x objectives). The Razer Phone 2 is recording at 2x magnification, I don't know if this is comparable to an image presented at 200x and 800x magnification, but it looks great! The Razer Phone 2 was set to record at 60fps at 4K resolution.
Contents of the video
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I collected pond water in a 500 mL plastic water bottle from Milliken Park in Scarborough (Toronto) Ontario, Canada on Friday May 31, 2019. This was my first time collecting pond water. Be very careful and very safe if you decide to do this. This video contains what I saw in a few drops of that pond water. Your guess is as good (or better) than mine as to what any of these organisms are. I usually look at human tissues and cells on prepared slides.
Wet mount technique
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We learned how to wet mount microorganisms in BIO173 during the first semester of Biotechnology at Seneca College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Now having completed the first year of Biotechnology at Seneca, I am preparing for my first semester in a new program--Biomedical Science at York University. It feels like summer already, and I'm wet mounting pond life at home.
This is one of the easiest wet mounts to perform, it requires pond water, a blank slide, cover slip, ideally a Pasteur pipette (or other small dropper you can find at the pharmacy) and maybe a Q-tip (for cleanup).
Use the Pasteur pipette or dropper to collect (aspirate or submerge and cover) pond water along with a small amount of green plant material. Why? This helps trap those little single-celled organisms so they aren't able to swim around the entire slide! Place one drop on the slide (or 2 to 3 equidistant drops) and properly place a single cover slip on top of the water droplet (or a single cover slip per drop if you have used more than one drop). If you have excess water you can use a Q-tip to carefully clean up the slide. You should now have performed one to three wet mounts! Yay!
Make sure stay clean! Wash your hands (and any other equipment) that has come into contact with pond water. Soap for your hands and equipment, or if you have any, isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) should work well enough for the equipment.
Music
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"Reflection" by TOOL
(I now believe the imagery in "Reflection" to be based on Plato's den/cave/prison allegory found in Book VII of "The Republic": classics.mit.ed...)