Like Antony van Leeuwenhoek I’m observing the animcules found in a simple hay infusion and finding great joy in the Earth’s smallest creatures. He first discovered protozoans in his youth and retained a child-like joy of discovery from his youth until his death at age 90. The ecology is evolving now with yeasts and many different types of motile bacteria. Magnification 1000x, DIC Microscopy.
When we gob onto a pavement or sport’s field, how many of us ever consider the truly wonderful nature of saliva. Our saliva is 99.5% water, with the other 0.5% comprising electrolytes, mucus, glycoproteins, enzymes, antibacterial compounds such as lysozyme. Various enzymes naturally present in saliva initiate the processes of digestion and begin to breakdown food. Saliva also serves as a lubricant, wetting food and thus permitting swallowing, and also protects the mucosal surfaces of the oral cavity from desiccation. It also bathes and nourishes the oral microbiome (that is the natural bacterial microflora of the mouth).
I hope that the microvideos below give you an idea of the complexity and content of this bodily fluid.
A saliva sample viewed with a DIC Microscope (1000x). I think the large cell is a cell from my immune system. A large nuclues and a cytoplasm that fizzes with activity.
A valley formed by my cheek epithelial cells, and a raft of leucocytes fizzing with antibacterial intent. In the flow, are smaller cells, the various bacteria from my microbiome.
Beneath the ‘sun” an epithelial cell with a visible nucleus, and underneath this is a leucocyte fizzing with antibacterial intent. In the flow, are smaller cells, the various bacteria from my microbiome.
Micrasterias thomasiana, a unicellular green alga of the Desmidiales order. 100x and 400x, DIC Microscope
The map before incubation
The map after incubation
The blue pigmented bacterium produces a powerful antibiotic that prevents its territory being infiltrated by purple and red
Yellow has been infiltrated by purple
Blue defends its territory via the production of a powerful antibiotic but pink (middle left) has been infiltrated by purple.
Day2. Red and purple continue to take territories. Pink, yellow and orange overtaken. Blue has produced an effective exclusion zone (through antibiotic production)
Day2. Pink and yellow have been invaded by purple and completely overtaken
Day2. Blue has produced an effective and antibiotic-based exclusion zone, protecting it against red
Day 2. Are yellow and orange combining their activities to produce an exclusion zone?
“the microscope discovers, what motions, what tumult, what wars, what pursuits, what stratagems” Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A new project inspired by the boardgames of my childhood, Risk, Campaign and Diplomacy, and also the inherent properties of biology. This is a coloured map on textile, but here and uniquely, the paints are pigmented and living bacteria, which like the inanimate peices on a boardgame, are capable of moving, killing and defending all to various degrees. The images here are of of the initial inoculation (each coloured patch represents a seperate bacterial species), and the map after incubation, and after its nature has been changed dramatically as the bacteria became active, grew, and interacted with each other. The red and purple pigmented bacteria are agressive and spread to infiltrate certain other species. Blue adopts a defensive strategy and produces a powerful, and yet uncharacterized antibiotic, that kills red and protects its own territory. I can’t help but feel that this map is a metaphor for our own species and wonder, as bacteria predated us in evolutionary terms, whether this activity is hardwired into our own biology.
Silver nitrate crystals. DIC Microscopy, 100x
A new project inspired by the board games of my childhood, Risk, Campaign and Diplomacy and the inherent properties of biology. This is a coloured map on textile but here and uniquely, the paints are pigmented and living bacteria, which like the inanimate peices on a boardgame, are capable of moving, killing and defending all to various degrees. This image is of the initial inoculation and hopefully the nature of the map will change dramatically as the bacteria become active, grow, and begin to interact. Each coloured patch represents a seperate bacterial species.
Like Antony van Leeuwenhoek I’m observing the animcules found in a simple hay infusion and finding great joy in the Earth’s smallest creatures. He first discovered protozoans in his youth and retained a child-like joy of discovery from his youth until his death at age 90. Mostly bacteria at the moment. Hoping that some larger predatory protozoa will appear soon.
Bacteria viewed with C-MOULD’s DIC Microscope
The second edition of a classic text. Well perhaps not, but a new and improved version of “Microbiology at Home: A Short Non-Laboratory Manual for Enthusiasts and BioArtists”. Techniques for growing bacteria at home
A fingeprint formed by microscopic droplets of skin olis and cells
Urine, crystals of urea
Urine, crystals of urea
Urine, crystals of urea
Urine, crystals of urea
Bits of me as seen through a DIC Microscope