A protocol for culturing Lacrymaria olor

Monthly online magazine for microscopy enthusiasts

Monthly online magazine for microscopy enthusiasts

How To Milk A Weed: Part II Looking At Crystals In Plant Juices by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Last time we examined some weeds and yard plants and, in this second part, we’ll be taking a look at some houseplants. We have a rather unusual Ficus (or, at least that’s what we were told. It was a...

A Micro-Rothko Gallery of Crystals by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Who would imagine that taking photomicrographs of Magnesium chloride crystals would lead into an adventure in the world of abstract expressionist art. For some months, I have been experimenting with a variety of substances to i...

Micro-Gardens by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA My wife and I used to get great pleasure from planting flowers and vegetables in the spring, but as our knees and backs, muscles and joints have aged, it is an activity which, unfortunately, we now have to limit largely to hanging plants for our po...

Resinous History: Insects in Amber by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Since the appearance of the film Jurassic Park, almost everyone knows about the farfetched possibility of extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. Amber is the fossilized resin of certain conifers. The resin ...

Calcareous Flowers: Tests and Cross-Sections of Sea Urchin Spines by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA For over 50 years, I have been fascinated with echinoderms and from time to time I would come across drawings or photographs in a zoology book of a cross-section of a sea urchin spine and marvel a...

Advice source on the identification of organisms attached to preserved specimen of Molgula manhattensis

Experiments on relaxing microorganisms with very dilute formalin by Walter Dioni, Durango, Dgo., México Viewing through the eyepiece with the naked eye, or with the aid of a graticule or our camera's focussing screen, we try many times to register, as a drawing or photo, one of our interesting m...

<em>Trichoplax</em> <em>adhaerens</em>

Forams and Oil by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA For a number of decades, forams–a.k.a foraminfera, a large group of fascinatingly bizarre marine amoebae with predominately calcareous shells–were of considerable economic importance, since stratigraphically the deposits of these shells were impor...

Mounting radiolaria shells

Thecamoeba: The Shar-Pei of the Protists by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Last summer, we had a large hanging pot of Lobelia on our patio which I watered thoroughly every day until water would come out through the holes in the bottom of the pot. At this altitude, 7,200 feet, it is essential to ...

Mysteries Surrounding Dried Stuff: Part 3 A Battered Chirodota Sea Cucumber From the Philippines by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Yes, I’m still fussing about the mangled, old sea cucumber from the Philippines and it’s all the fault of Mr. F.M. Hamlin and his article “The Wheel-Like And Other S...

Hunting Micro-Aliens The first voyage text by Richard L. Howey images by Micscape contributors If you have a few billion dollars to spare, access to rockets, enormous electronic monitoring facilities, the dedication of thousands of scientists and technicians, and lots of time and patience, then ...

Tunicates

A Crystalline Herbal and Bestiary: A Journey To An Alien World Part VIII - The Journey Home (Conclusion) by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Visit the Micscape Library to read other parts in the series. The next morning Consul Zettel came to escort me back to my ship for the journey back to Earth....

A Crystalline Herbal and Bestiary: A Journey To An Alien World Part II by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Visit the Micscape Library to read other parts in the series. The Zoological Gardens Consul Zettel arrived mid-morning and we set off to encounter the animal side of the planet. Remarkably ev...

An Eccentric Amateur Naturalist’s Dream Vacation by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Having a background as an armchair philosopher allows me the advantage of being able to conjure up a Platonically ideal vacation without having to deal with other obnoxious tourists (yes, I admit that some might f...

A Crystalline Herbal and Bestiary: A Journey To An Alien World Part VI - The Alien Research Facility (continued) by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA Visit the Micscape Library to read other parts in the series. I met Zettel early the next morning and he asked me if I was ready to proceed. “By all ...

Nigrosin: A Different Kind of Staining Technique by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA In examining protozoa, and medium to large ciliates in particular, one often gets curious about the surface features of the membrane which are not readily observable in the living organisms. Nigrosin is a fairly c...

An essay on some of the curious but fascinating microorganisms of interest to the microscopy enthusiast. With notes on their classification.

Copper Salts, Ciliates, and A Taxonomic Puzzle by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA A couple of years ago, I was experimenting with making up some slides of crystals of copper salts some of which are quite beautiful and they will form different patterns at different temperatures. I happened to reca...

The Quest for Spicules Part 2 by Richard L. Howey, Wyoming, USA In this part, I want to focus primarily on skeletal structures in sponges and soft corals (Gorgonians). As I mentioned before, there are 3 primary types in sponges in terms of composition: calcareous, siliceous, and organic (spongin...