Love your channel!! Pls don't stop, you're the only one doing quality DIY videos on biotech!

Every video keeps getting better! You have a talent for expressing your passion for science through these videos and that's what makes it so interesting for viewers with similar interests. Keep up the great work!

Be careful using aluminum foil as a darkfield stop; it can reflect heat back into the lamp and cause it to overheat (less of a problem for LED scopes). I've used black cardstock which works well and absorbs a lot more of the light rather than bouncing it back downward

This was probably the coolest part of my aerospace structures lab. We used the same concept to visualize stress concentrations around a hole in a material. The material itself in our case was one of the polarizers but it could be applied to any material that has a noticeable birefrigence optical property.

Thank you!!! I've just bought a microscope two weeks back and this is just what i need. Thanks a lot :)

Not a nematode expert, but by the way that worm moved, I think its a microscopic annelid. All the nematodes I've looked at move by thrashing about, whereas your worm is using peristalisis.

Awesome Video , after watching this video I did the polarized modification and the results were amazing. Only thing i did differently was that I purchased a a cheap pair of polarized glasses and cut the lenses out using a bandsaw. Can't wait for future videos !!!!

Thanks a lot for this excellent tutorial! I can confirm this works very well, but the polarizing filters need to have NO scratch, else the image will be very blurry! I found that polarizing sheets can often come scratched, whereas polarizing glass filters for cameras are more robust and provide the same result (that's a tip I found on a microscopy forum), so in the end I am using polarizing filters for cameras and this works very well. Also, using 2 circular polarizing filters is better than the typical linear polarizers because with circular filters we can still see some material that would go totally extinct with linear, as described in this paper: Higgins, M. D. (2010). Imaging birefringent minerals without extinction using circularly polarized light. The Canadian Mineralogist, 48(1), 231-235.

Man, I'm subscribed in at least 100 Channels but the best of them it's yours, no dulbt...

Geologists, at least at my university, have to take several courses in rock/mineral ID using polarized & cross-polarized light. It's called petrography.

You can also use the lenses from 3D glasses used at your local theatre.

As an alternative to darkfield you could use colour filter discs and a coloured annular to try Rheinberg illumination.

Cool. Feel like you've seen my Amazon shopping cart hold list. LOL. If I ever do get the microscope I'll definitely try out both mods.

Yes, it's great to see these cheap and easy ways of producing more advanced modes of illumination. I have found that you can get really good darkfield images by leaving your microscope light switched off and just shining a reading light or even a strong torch (flashlight in American) across the axis of the normal brightfield lighting, ie horizontally, parallel to the floor. It's a pity there just doesn't seem to be an easy do-it-yourself way of getting phase contrast lighting, unless you have invented one!

I'm not really that interested in biology, but the colorful images look amazing. Thank you for making this video.

It is surprisingly underwhelming how underrated your channel is Despite the high quality

(1:50) It's called _birefringence,_ not "bifringence".

a laymans way to do the first lart is to just get one polarisaer and your phone, or any lcd screen. place the object between your screen and the lens, and show a white screen on max brightness. rotate either the screen or the lens, and enjoy the pretty colours

Yea, two Polarizers are fun, but throw in a third one into the path and give 'em all a twist to blow your mind! Try circular Polarizers. Movie theatre 3d glasses are fine. Waves move through the Aether _and there's not a single particle in sight..._ lol

Dude I honestly believe you are so underated, you should have at least few hundred thousand subscribers. I will perform both of these mods; it is so AWESOME :D

Can I use polarizing filters that you put on the lens of your camera?

With a Trinocular, Polarisationfilters work also at the 0° Eyepiece, the one on the top, i would guess because the light dosn't really get disturbed that way.

Quick tip: 3d glasses from the movies are a great source of polarizers

You have good knowledge of optics

I have some old IMax 3d glasses wondering if I can uses the len's. This looks cool

This is awesome. I hope to be able to use this to do petrography at home with a cheaper microscope.

Very good insight of polarized and of dark field microscopy. I'm curious about a couple of things, though. As my degree is in photo science, with a good splattering of basic optical design and engineering: 1. Do you really need to stack the black mask or is that to create opacity for the mask. Why can't a singular, opaque circle of the correct diameter, mounted onto thin plastic be used? 2. Why does the positioning of the upper polarizer need to be so critically placed (on the inside, upper housing v/s the bottom of the eyepiece? Thanks, great work and narration.

Cool video, easy to understand. Thanks!

If you put a piece of polystyrene (e.g. smashed petri dish lid) between the first polarizer and specimen you will get a retardation plate. This creates some absolutely stunning background effects like colour gradients and such.

Hi bro, that is not a nematode it is an anelido, from the Polychaeta class, it was a nice video to

Thank you so much. Very helpful.

You deserve more credit

3:27 partial Romanian flag spotted bottom right

Awesome! Thanks so much!

It's absolutely staggering that you don't have more subscribers.

You deserve more subscribers

You are the best thank you for the useful video, I actually enjoyed it and I'm about to polarize my Microscope. thx

Ok, 30 seconds in, and that's insane for 150$. Wtf the future is now.

Awesome, thanks!

Is it possible to build Schlieren effect on to a microscope to see gradients of density maybe combining it with the Polarisation mod?

Would this work with reflected light microscopy?

Where can I find that filter?

What is the difference between polarized and cross-polarized light microscopy to cause larval otoliths to become binfrigent.. would this work?

One thing I saw in a research paper was dark field microscopy to see Noble nanopartícles in a Silicon substrate. Do you know if we can do the same using your technique? Your "homemade" dark microscope. Ty!

I'm wanting to mod the OMAX microscopes to use a better color LED light. Do you think that looks easy to do with this scope?

How easy is to upgrade it to be phase contrast microscope ? I would like to observe live cultures of bacteria with Omax microscope

Thank You... lol I am a 'Home Geek Wierdo' accprdoomg to my friends .... this new interest of mine would fried them out lol My best closest mate calls my "Spooky at a Distance" already, because I Love PhotonLightTherapy.... I'm a singer/Songwriter ( award winning amongst peers} so you can imagine why 'They' think I am weird - guess whose doing the looking/thinking.... I just consider myself as Switched-On .... This world is Fascinating, and when I feel down it's these things that switch me On again.... accidentally found your Chanel because I want to Program Water - we know that can be done, and use slivers of 'Programming Gems and Chrystals" I also want to see it works, or not - figured this was the only way I could know for sure, and keep the Quality of bounce-to-light-to-Human-Health consistent..... and the Dark-Matter stuff seemingly surrounding everything has captured my interest too, as I imagine it's an Active Component around/through everything , which we don't really understand its activity in all/through all things yet"|? see, my Weird Science that I just call "Thought"Thanks again

One of my goals is to get into quantum physics since it’s so unexplored but without college degrees how do I go about getting into that type of of field

What are polarizes

Maybe you want to try to make microlattice?

so this is what not wasting your 20s in video games looks like, impressive

The graphic at 1:23 is wrong. Compare the orientation of the light passing through the filter to the orientation of the filter.

DIY microscope lens with sugar (or something else) crystal

I just watched you on vice. Its cool you guys got some notice. Hopefully someone out there sees it who is willing to invest with your team. That Aaron dude is such a douche. Hope all your equipment was okay. Thats a lot of money just thrown to the sidewalk. Does your team have a new space to continue reaearch?

is it possible to use a circular polarisers ?

I want to replace the very hot lightbulb source with some LED, (using a pi cam) I tried a white LED and a 365nm LED. What would you suggest? Perhaps a RGB ?

Cant you use two polarisers to vary the brightness of light underneath as opposed to the aluminium

Use your 3D glasses from the cinema, if you want to experiment but not buy anything.

Same microscopes in my school lol

Also you can do darkfield and polarized at the same time however you must use/make glass darkfield filter since almost all plastics polarize light. Check out my channel yo find out how to do that

Is it possible to do phase contrast with a hack like this?

Good Vid..and is it snagglepuss talking.

The funny thing is that is the LITERAL EXACT microscope that I am using.

How can I see my sperm with my $20 microscope? 😂😂😂

btw pls tag me