Comments for Microcosmos

Comment on Sand Crabs and Shrimp at Stinson Beach, CA! by Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 20:03:27 +0000

Welcome to Foldscope community Lila. What a wonderful start. Absolutely love each of these videos. Thanks for sharing them with everyone in the Foldscope community. Sand crabs seem to appear and disappear like magic. I made some sketches based on observations we made at the beach; I will send them to you – so you can append them to this post.

The way they get inside the sand is fascinating. It reminds me of how some organisms swim in “fluidized” sand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4bxRj-BjFg

Also; @christina: Could you please write a little about these “puzzling” blue pigments. Its a big surprise to me.

Laks: This is an incredible post. Please do take a look.

cheers
manu

Comment on Foldscopes Saved the Outreach Event! by mostlymicrobes

mostlymicrobes — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 16:11:21 +0000

Thanks for that idea! Will do that for the next outreach event.

Comment on Microfluidics: a primer by damontighe

damontighe — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:28:36 +0000

Hi Arjun53,

I haven’t had time to come back and revisit the cheap microfluidics ideas due to my work schedule. The students in Colorado that I worked with were suppose to post to Microcosmos upon completion of their project, but I’m not seeing their blog up. So here is the paper they wrote on their attempts to build a microfluidic device on the Foldscope platform. Distilled – stretched glass capillaries worked better then nailpolish channels or plastic channel for optical quality. Since high schools have a hard time getting approval to use blood the students used some green algae in the same size range as red blood cells.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzTWRWC5YiXsZlhnTG9DWEEtdjQ

a 3D printer has potential to print the channel, but the original goal was to have something that would be cheap to make in way out of the way places, so I haven’t gone down the 3D printing path with this.

Comment on DIY FoldScope by MadGreen

MadGreen — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 16:22:14 +0000

You will not be disappointed with the real FoldScope but I think the homemade version is still worth making if you have or can make your own lens for it. I edited my original post here to include a link to my website where there is a nicer pattern (not made by me).

The light module is nice but I usually just hold it up to a window or other light source instead. That seem to work good enough for me, eliminates the need for the extra parts, and doesn’t require any power.

Comment on Our Latex experiments by laksiyer

laksiyer — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:46:17 +0000

@Manu, we have been wanting to look at it for long, didnt think we would see the particles. These are membrane bound, charged and I wonder if one can do more. Been reading this paper on the same.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005273613003052

Comment on Foldscoping from a boat – hello from NZ by laksiyer

laksiyer — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:32:45 +0000

@Manu What a fantastic catch. Some diatoms, crustaceans, green alga and possibly phaeophytes. Cant wait to see more details. There are some great hot springs in NZ (school text book recollection), would be interesting to collect samples there.

Comment on Assembly/Usage Tutorials by nafis

nafis — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 08:04:17 +0000

IT JUST ARRIVED YESTERDAY AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY !!!
I made 7 slides for my foldscope

Comment on Our Latex experiments by Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 16:55:34 +0000

Dear @Aditi and @Laks and D.C. micronauts,

What a wonderful journey of discovery. Just absolutely amazing. I have seen plants bleed all my life; never before did I realize it’s a rubber – and never before did I think about the chewing consequences. A beautiful example of the power of asking simple questions.

I also love the format of small videos – the tension was building up all the way to the end. Let’s compare latex from many more plants – I will keep my eyes open for bleeding plants. So should everyone in the foldscope community!!

Cheers
Manu

Comment on Fast moving creatures in the water collected in a Bromeliad in the cloud forest by Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 11:51:59 +0000

Dear @Minx,

Wonderful to hear you are deep in the jungles of Ecuador. I think you forgot to upload the pictures/video. Or maybe it did not have enough time to upload.

Could you please hit “edit” on your post and add pictures. Would love to also see pictures of your surroundings. Very curious to know what’s living in these beautiful flowers.

Cheers
Manu

Comment on வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சியின் இறகு by Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:50:07 +0000

Dear @Eden,

What a wonderful post. Absolutely love the different colors. I am wondering what species of butterfly this is. Could you post a picture with the entire wing spread out.

Also; you might find some techniques I posted on imaging butterfly wings useful. Just in case; see here: https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=22192

Lovely to read this. More Foldscope coming your way very soon 🙂

cheers
manu