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I managed to observe the tiny difference in refractive index in the liquid, expelled by the contractile vacuole of Paramecium, relative to its external aqueous environment. This was made possible by observing the organism in conditions of Jamin-Lebedeff interference microscopy. Below is a timelapse of images showing the contractile vacuole discharge and the link to the full video.

Very nice.

Thank you Francisco!

Wow, that is an outstanding work. I did not know about that technique. So much to learn!

Does temperature has something to do with the refractive index? The images reminds me to infrared astrophotography.

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Javier.

Javier wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:39 pm

Does temperature has something to do with the refractive index? The images reminds me to infrared astrophotography.

Temperature certainly has an effect on refractive index, you've probably seen how hot air distorts the light passing through it. What happens with this mode of interference microscopy is that we compare two parallel beams of light, one passing through the object and the other through the surrounding environment. So as one wavefront gets delayed relative to the other we see a color equal to white light minus the color that corresponds to the wavelength by which the two wavefronts have been shifted. For example if the optical path shift is 530 nm we see magenta (white light - 530 nm(green) = magenta).

Wonderful work Wes. Absolutely first class!
Tom W.

Incredible!

Why is Jamin-Lebedeff footage so rare...

tgss wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:16 pm

Wonderful work Wes. Absolutely first class!
Tom W.

Thank you Tom

Lomonaut wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 25, 2021 7:08 pm

Incredible!

Why is Jamin-Lebedeff footage so rare...

Thanks, I guess the device itself is quite rare which would explain why there isn't much footage captured with it.

Had missed this, glad I finally saw it.

Impressive! Nice camera work as well :)

That's extremely interesting, and beautifully recorded. I'd never heard of Jamin-Lebedoff contrast.

Thank you 75' and Bruce. In principle the device was not meant to generate colorful images as its used with a single wavelength (546 nm) to make precise measurements but I'm not too interested in that.