Be patient as the picture loads…. The top image is a focus animation of a water flea, the bottom one a rocking GIF made with Picolay. Both images give a sense of depth perception. It appears as if there are two smaller organisms carried in the back of the mother. The dark spots are the [...]

Be patient as the picture loads. It is an animated GIF showing the claws of the leg of a honey bee (the tarsus). I have used the free image editing software GIMP to make this picture. The steps are as follows: Take a series of pictures of different focus. Make sure that they are numbered [...]

The leaves are the photosynthetic organs of a plant. The cells are packed with chloroplasts, which convert CO2 gas from the atmosphere and water to glucose, using the energy of sunlight. The produced glucose is then either respired and used as an energy source, or it is converted to other organic substances needed for plant [...]

This instructional video gives an introduction into the correct use of the microscope.

The two images show the fresh water polyp Hydra sp taken with the iPad held in front of the eyepiece (40x and 400x total magnification). The images were uploaded directly and not edited (except resize).

The wing of flies and bees (of hymenoptera in general) are thin and membranous. Place the dry wing into Euparal mounting medium and place a further drop on top of the wing, before adding the cover glass. Wet mounts should also work well. Notice the veins and the numerous small hair, which cover the wing.

Bird feathers are relatively easy specimens to observe. Take a feather, cut off a small piece of the feather with scissors and embed it into a hydrophobic mounting medium, such as Euparal. Alternatively you can make a dry mount, and use no mounting medium at all (use adhesive tape to fix the cover glass to [...]

I just want to share a nice video that I found. It’s worth watching.