So I saw this cheap $50 1200x microscope and figured I’d give it a shot. It came in the mail today and I was wondering what neat things I could look at. Well, one thing led to another and I whipped me up a slide and there they were. Swarming all around.
It was just the weirdest feeling. Here were all these little microscopic machines made by my own body. And there they went, scooting around under the cover slip. Two of them bonked into each other. I tried to take a photo but it is after all just a $50 microscope. It’s little projector did its best but sperm are very, very small and wiggly. Even the ones that weren’t moving I could really only see the head like a grain of rice on the kitchen floor. Now I want a really nice microscope that I can connect a camera to and take awesome photos. Although I suppose they’ll still be too small to see much detail.
Well, it’s been about half an hour since I made the sample and the movements all gone. It’s just a sad little post apocalyptic slide now. The tattered remains of a once bustling city. Poor little swimmy and all his brethren.
Oh well, i can’t wait to check out my blood, ear wax, boogers and tartar. I hope to be able to find some of my human fauna. Any advice on where to look? I kinda don’t want to see what things I might find in a stool sample but I’ll probably get around to it.
I’m still so excited, not that way, it was so amazing.
I respectfully disagree. Peering at…stuff…through the microscope is a better use of time than watching TV or going to the movies. Of course, I work in a lab.
Take a scraping from under your fingernail and see what might be there. You better have a look at a hair too. How about just some good old spit, bet there’s all kinds of cool creapy stuff in that. Happen to have any zits?
Pluck out one of your eyelashes and place it in a drop of water before you put a coverslip on it. A lot of people have microscopic mites living in their eyelash roots, and you’ll be able to see them swimming around.
I love looking at junk from my body under the microscope… I used to work in a microbiology lab and I was always Gram-staining swabs from my tongue or nose. I didn’t learn anything other than the fact that I have a lot of huge Gram-negative rods in my mouth, but it was fun nonetheless.
During a 4.5- year dance with infertility, I saw mine once. On t.v. There was a video tap hooked up to the microscope.
It’s…uh…well, humbling and fascinating. Most of mine were swimming slowly and aimlessly, some were not swimming at all. ( hence some of the infertilty. )
Wish I had me a microscope now. I also would love to swab various surfaces around the house for bacteria, but I have no idea how powerful a microscope I would need to see them.
Two of them bonked into each other? Hmmmm… I’m not sure I’d want to know if two of my husband’s bonked into each other. It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
I’m going to be a good girl and not mention anything about Freud and microscopes. I’m really not.
That said, I once looked at a live amoeba under a microscope (this was in an all-girl’s private school, sperm wasn’t really available at the time). Very cool and fascinating stuff.
