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Mr. M's Microscopy of the Reef, FlowerMama's Dinos! #303


Mr. Microscope

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Mr. Microscope
Awesomesauce!! It's so interesting to see how our corals are built and what's on them. :)

It's kinda funny. I think those salt crystals were just the result of me pulling the coral out of the tank and letting it dry. They would perhaps not be there if i rinsed it in fresh water beforehand.

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yea the SEM at UW Madison was put in place...then they built the building around it! (its 6 stories tall, 30 feet across and weighs something like 15 tons).

 

so make sure you get a BIG crane and a few 18 wheelers to carry it!

 

great pictures! very well done! cant wait to see more!

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Very cool! You should check out some sponges for the spicules.

 

Also, what other elements/compounds do you use for coating the samples?

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Mr. Microscope
yea the SEM at UW Madison was put in place...then they built the building around it! (its 6 stories tall, 30 feet across and weighs something like 15 tons).

 

so make sure you get a BIG crane and a few 18 wheelers to carry it!

 

great pictures! very well done! cant wait to see more!

I think you're talking about the 1 Million volt TEM that they had. It was taken down years ago, but yes. I heard it was quite impressive. There are only two working models of those left in the world right now. I think one is in Geneva and the other in Japan somewhere. Rockefeller used to have one but now I think it's on display in their lobby. I heard it was used in one of the Spiderman movies as a prop (haven't see any).

 

The New York Structural Biology Center was built similarly. They made these giant concrete columns to put microscopes on that went down to the bedrock and then built the building around them. Apparently, the concrete inside will take something like ten years to fully cure.

 

Thanks malawian!

 

i was gonna ask..any idea what live corals from a ocean reef would look like..would they too have salt crystals on them

They'd look pretty cool. You'd be able to differentiate the epithlial cells on the surface of the coral. It'd look like tiny little round or square objects organized in an array throughout the surface of it's flesh. No, they wouldn't have salt crystals unless you let the salt water dry on the sample like I did.

 

Let's see what skimmate looks like under it...seriously. :D

 

Great idea! I'd think if you pulled out a bunch of scum that you'd see some neat stuff in there.

 

Very cool! You should check out some sponges for the spicules.

 

Also, what other elements/compounds do you use for coating the samples?

Good idea. Those would look pretty wicked!

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yes! i think youre correct it was a TEM. my father used it while getting his PhD there. i have some very neat photos of viruses doing DNA reuptake. pretty impressive machine!

 

nearly anything at this level of magnification is so fascinating...I hope to see more pictures of anything from your tank!

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Mr. Microscope
Did you mean Pocillopora?

uh.. D'oh! I've been saying pro this whole time. Thanks! Made the change in my head now.

 

yes! i think youre correct it was a TEM. my father used it while getting his PhD there. i have some very neat photos of viruses doing DNA reuptake. pretty impressive machine!

 

nearly anything at this level of magnification is so fascinating...I hope to see more pictures of anything from your tank!

More to come!

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Great idea! I'd think if you pulled out a bunch of scum that you'd see some neat stuff in there.

 

I'm specifically curious how much of it is diatoms and coccolithophores. It would be easy enough to digest away the organic goo and leave the tests behind, but I just don't have time to do it!

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Mr. Microscope

Stereo Light Microscopy of Chaetomorpha

 

Though this might not be as exciting at electron microscopy of pocillapora, I got on a stereo microscope today to look at a sample of my Chaetomorpha. As you may know, I just started a frag tank and I was wondering about the state of pods in my tank. Though there may be some in my live rock, I found that my chaeto is completely devoid of any pods! I know that this situation will eventually correct itself, but I'm impatient. So, I placed an order with reefcleaners today and got some Pods +. Supposedly, it contains a variety of iso, copa, and amphipods, along with some small shrimp. I can't wait to see what comes in. When my chaeto does get seeded I'll take some more images of a fully populated macro. It should be interesting to see all the stuff crawling around. Perhaps I'll take a movie! But for now, you get to see the beautiful green macro algae known as chaetomorpha. Enjoy!

chaeto05.jpg

 

chaeto02.jpg

 

chaeto04.jpg

 

chaeto03.jpg

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Mr. Microscope
This all reminds me of Horton Hears a Who hehe. Very cool, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to see more :)

LOL! It is a little Seussish. Thanks!

 

I would have lost money betting chaeto was a unicellular macro

thought it was

 

 

this is a really good thread nice job MM

Thanks Brandon! It's interesting stuff.

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Mr. Microscope
What kind of SEM you using? The text at the bottom of your screen shots looks familiar.

Hello TUO,

 

It's a Hitachi S-3400. Though, the software used is similar on most recent Hitachi models. The light microscope is a Leica.

 

whoa micro, i step outside for a few weeks and you post the most epic pics ever. well done sir!

Thanks jdl!!! :happy:

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