Collaboration between a Camera and a Microscope

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to look down the microscope as a PhD student, and I only ever had to look down the microscope for one reason and that was to check for cell confluency.

 

This was a critical step during in vitro cell work. It was the time a crucial decision needed to be made as to whether the cells growing in the flask were confluent enough so the cells could be split or seeded? Or if the cells were not confluent and needed to be left to grow for another day or two? 

 

A Rush of Excitement!!

This was part of my weekly ritual in the lab it was very repetitive and a little dull because I always saw the same rounded shaped cells under the microscope. Until one day, my cells were contaminated!! This is every biologist’s nightmare!! However, for me, that one time I felt a rush of excitement since now I knew that I was about to see something completely different under the microscope …. and I did, it was very “nasty” looking!! 

The Collaboration

Nevertheless, this little incident had opened up a new adventurous path within the lab. Outside of the lab, I often capture fragments of the world through my camera lens and I thought it would be of interest to strike up collaboration between my camera and the lab microscope with the aim of capturing the same image yet through different lenses. 

Below are some of the images collected revealing some surprising details.

 

Figure 1. a) Photograph of rain drops on leaves (picture taken with an iphone5) (left panel) and b) water drops under the microscope at 100X (right panel). 

Have you ever wondered what water drops look like down the microscope? Figure 1a is a photograph of raindrops balanced very delicately on leaves and Figure 1b shows water drops under the lab microscope appearing very metallic in structure. 

Or have you ever wondered what flower petals look like down the microscope? Figure 2a is a photograph of flowers in the sunset and Figure 2b is a picture of the white flower petals under the microscope.

 

Figure 2. a) Photograph of flowers in the sunset (picture taken with an iphone5) (top panel) and b) white flower petals under the microscope at 100X (bottom panel).

Conclusion 

As well as doing actual research in the lab, there are many ways to be creative and have fun! Taking these opportunities can generate something very interesting. 

Here is a link to some wonderful pictures taking under the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

By Rabbab Oun - Ruby is a Research Assistant (RA) working with a mixture of biodegradable polymers to design a stent with tunable drug release rates for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.