Posts that relate to the Keyword: algae

Life in the Flower Pot Water (or: Comparing the Size of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes)

Over the past few years, I’ve met several students who wanted to see bacteria through the microscopes that we have at school. Unfortunately, these devices are not equipped with phase contrast optics. The transparent bacteria are therefore difficult (but not impossible) to see. The biggest draw-back, however, comes from a different source: some of the [...]

Answering Reader Questions

Why use phosphate buffer when making a permanent slide of cheek cells? Assuming, that the buffer refers to phosphate buffered saline, the advantages are that the pH is stable and that the solution is isotonic to the cells. The cells, therefore, do not change shape. The solution is used to make dilutions of the cells [...]

Making a wet mount microscope slide

This post explains how to make a wet mount. Video included!

Volvox

Volvox is a fresh water green algae and a member of the Chlorophyta. The picture shows a spherical volvox colony, each ball can contain hundreds, if not thousands of individual cells. The picture shows six daughter colonies inside the main colony. The main colony disintegrates and the daughter colonies are then released. Volvox is a [...]

Spirogyra Algae

Microscopic picture of the algae Spirogyra. The algae possesses a spiral shaped chloroplast, which is clearly visible in the cell.