Was looking for bacteria, not sure if I found any

[Lilly Begonia]

Having some spoiling chicken to throw out I decided to see what I could see in the juice from it, and made a couple slides with it. I saw some things, but I'm not sure what they are. There were these bubbles all through it with stuff inside them, but I'm not sure they were any kind of cell, maybe they are just air bubbles because there are a huge number of different sizes of them. Then there are the curious rod structures, a lot of those, I've no idea what those are, and lastly this oblong thing with white dots in it. I was hoping to see a salmonella bacterium, but it doesn't look like what I found on Google. So anyone know what these things are?

[zzffnn]

Those do not look at bacteria to a microbiologist (me). They should look like solid (black) dots or rods under light microscope.

You may want to state your magnification (most bacteria are viewed at 1000x total magnification, some big / stained ones can be viewed at 400x).

[Lilly Begonia]

Those do not look at bacteria to a microbiologist (me). They should look like solid (black) dots or rods under light microscope.

You may want to state your magnification (most bacteria are viewed at 1000x total magnification, some big / stained ones can be viewed at 400x).

Thank you, they don't look like what I expected of bacteria either. I'm still curious about those rod-like things. You are right, I should be stating the magnification. I'm really new to this, but I'll keep that in mind for future posts. I need to work on staining technique, I'm not real good at it yet and have messed up a couple of slides this morning.

Here's one of those rods with magnification:

[Pat Thielen]

I could be wrong (of course) but I think those little things in the background, just out of focus, are bacteria. Typically, they are around 4-8 microns long (although of course some are quite a bit larger or smaller than that). So, to see them individually you need to use 400x magnification or even better yet 1,000x oil immersion.

I don't want to advertise my Facebook page, but I will in this case because it might help. If you go there and visit my "Very Tiny Things" album (it's a public album) you'll find some photos of bacteria. The Anthrax rods are about 8 microns long and I have one photo that is at 400x and the other is at 1,000x oil immersion.

Bacteria don't always move; sometimes all you see is brownian motion as they get bopped around by molecules. Other times you'll see them swimming in various ways. In fact, by now I'm sure you've seen quite a few of them just by looking at waterbears and other things. You can also see them quite easily in pond water and dirt samples. They really are quite interesting.

[apochronaut]

Yes, there are bacteria in those images. Bacteria are virtually always present in live samples, no matter what it is, as are yeasts and mould spores. They are so close to being omnipresent, that you might as well say they are and a considerable number are highly motile with very interesting behavioural patterns, although that too can be missed due to poor imaging.

The problem with imaging many of those very small life forms, is that they are often very similar in refractive index to water, so in BF , one usually images their diffraction bands, rather than them, if anything at all. That is primarily what is present in those captures of yours. Often though, a field in BF that shows almost nothing, when viewed in phase, DF or as a third alternative stained, can be swarming with them.

Many bacterial structures or inclusions are also difficult to image with achromatic objectives and only with fluorite or apochromat objectives do some of the many features become evident, so viewing them with mediocre technology is fairly boring. N.A.'s higher than 1.30 are very valuable for bacteria.