Tissue captured with HD Camera under Microscope

These images of tissue were capturing used the UX-1 Plan Achromat microscope and the HDCAM4 High Definition Microscope Camera. The HD camera is a video camera that allows for capture of images using the SD Card. This camera is a great teaching / training tool, as it provides a high frame rate for live images and the HDMI cable allows direct connection to a monitor. The camera includes a mouse for use when connected directly to a monitor to control on-screen measuring, mirror feature, comparison, zoom, freeze and cross bar.

Back of HDCAM4 microscope video camera.

HDCAM4, power cable, HDMI cable and Mouse.

 

The images below of tissue were all captured using the HDCAM4 high definition microscope camera. Images were saved to the SD memory card.

Tissue under the UX-1 microscope captured using the HDCAM4 camera.

Tissue under the UX-1 microscope captured using the HDCAM4 camera.

Tissue under the UX-1 microscope captured using the HDCAM4 camera.

Tissue under the UX-1 microscope captured using the HDCAM4 camera.

Painkillers under the Microscope

Maurice Mikkers has a passion for both science and photography. A few years ago when he was on strong pain medication, he got the idea to combine his passions and photograph pain killers under the microscope. He began with several over the counter pain medications.

Diclofenac is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is taken to reduce inflammation and as an analgesic reducing pain in certain conditions. It is sold over the counter in most countries for minor aches and pains as well as fever associated with common infections.

Mikkers photographed the Diclofenac crystals after preparing a slide and waiting 72 hours. He captured the images using a polarizing microscope and a Canon ESO 5D Mark III 22 megapixel camera.

Diclofenac crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Diclofenac crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Acetaminophen is a widely used over the counter pain reliever and fever reducer. Acetaminophen is commonly used for the relief of headaches and other minor aches and pains and is a major ingredient in numerous cold and flu remedies.

Mikkers photographed the Acetaminophen crystals after preparing a slide and waiting three hours. He captured the images using a polarizing microscope and a Canon ESO 5D Mark III 22 megapixel camera.

Acetaminophen crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Acetaminophen crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Aspirin is used to relieve minor aches and pains, as an anti-inflammatory medication, and to reduce a fever. Aspirin also has an anti-platelet effect by inhibiting the production of thromboxane, which under normal circumstances binds platelet molecules together to create a patch over damaged walls of blood vessels.

Mikkers photographed the Acetaminophen crystals after preparing a slide and waiting one hour. He captured the images using a polarizing microscope and a Canon ESO 5D Mark III 22 megapixel camera. 

Aspirin crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Aspirin crystals under a polarizing microscope. Photo Courtesy Maurice Mikkers

Maurice Mikker's microscope / camera setup.

Thank you to Maurice for sharing his microcopy images with Microscope World. He has captured other images of drugs and medicine under the microscope and you can view these images by Maurice Mikkers here.

Bacteria Under the Microscope with Different Objective Lenses

Microscope World recently took a Gram stain prepared slide of three different types of bacteria and captured images using different microscope objective lenses. The microscope used to view the bacteria was the Fein Optic RB30 biological lab microscope.

Fein Optic RB30 Microscope

Bacteria captured using the Plan Achromat 4x Objective Lens (40x total magnification).

Bacteria captured using the Plan Achromat 10x Objective Lens (100x total magnification).

Bacteria captured using the Plan Achromat 40x Objective Lens (400x total magnification).

Bacteria captured using the Plan Semi-Apochromat Fluor 40x Microscope Objective (400x total magnification).

Click on each image above in order to see a larger image. Can you notice a difference in the quality from the Plan Achromat 40x lens and the Plan Semi-Apochromat Fluor 40x lens?

Live Blood under Darkfield Microscope

Blood cells captured with darkfield microscopy.

The image above is of live blood cells captured with a 3 megapixel microscope camera on a lab biological microscope using the darkfield slider. When looking at live blood cells typically both darkfield microscopy and phase contrast microscopy are utilized.

Fruit and Flower Microscope Slides

The Fruit & Flower Prepared Microscope Slide Kit contains beautiful prepared slides that are ready to view under a biological microscope. This prepared slide set is the perfect gift for someone who already has a microscope, but might be looking for something new to view under their microscope. The Fruit & Flower Prepared Slide Kit contains the following prepared slides: (All images below were captured using the Richter Optica U2-D digital biological microscope.)

Cucumis Staminate Flower prepared slide under the microscope (100x)

The Cucumis Staminate Flower is better known as the stamen from the cucumber family, including melons.

Ranunculus prepared slide under the microscope (100x)

Ranunculus are a colorful flower group that includes buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

Monocot and Dicot of Flower Bud prepared slide under the microscope (40x)

Monocot and Dicot of flower buds are beautiful and typically product amazing colors in prepared microscope slides.

Capsella of Bud prepared slide under the microscope (400x)

Capsella of Bud is a mature embryo with Cotyledons. Capsella is a genus of herbaceous plants and biennial plants in the mustard family.

Wheat prepared slide under the microscope (40x)

Wheat is the third-most produced cereal grain in the world behind maize and rice.

Pear prepared slide under the microscope (400x)

Pears are grown both as an edible fruit and for the beauty of their ornamental trees.

Corn Seed prepared slide under the microscope (100x)

Corn (also known as Maize) is a large-grain plant that is a monocot.

Pollen prepared slide under the microscope (100x)

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder that contains microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce male gametes. Pollen is involved in the reproduction of plants.

Lilium prepared slide under the microscope (40x)

Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all of which have large and prominent flowers (including Lilies).

Capsella prepared slide under the microscope (100x)

Capsella is part of the mustard family.

All the fruit and flower prepared slides shown above can be purchased in the Fruit & Flower Prepared Slide Kit from Microscope World. You can find alternative prepared slide kits here.

Microscopy Gram Staining

Gram staining (sometimes called Gram's method) is the method in which bacterial species are differentiated into two groups: Gram-positive and Gram-negative, making it a differential staining method. The name Gram Staining comes from the Danish bacteriology Hans Christian Gram, who developed the microscopy technique.

Gram staining differentiates bacteria by the chemical and physical properties of their cell walls and by detecting a thick layer of protein-sugar complexes called peptidoglycans, which are present in Gram-positive bacteria in a layer that makes up 60-90% of the cell wall. Peptidoglycans are present in the cells walls of Gram-negative organisms, but they only comprise 10-20% of the cell wall. In a Gram stain test, Gram-positive bacteria retain the crystal violet dye, while a counterstain (often safranin or fuchsine) added after the crystal violet gives all Gram-negative bacteria a red or pink coloring.

Gram staining is almost always the first step in the identification of a bacterial organism. While Gram staining is a valuable diagnostic tool in both clinical and research settings, not all bacteria can be definitely classified by this technique.

Image Courtesy: Y. Tambe

The image above shows both Gram-positive bacteria (in purple) and Gram-negative bacteria (in pink). The microscope image is of Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive, purple) and Escherichia coli (gram-negative, pink) and was captured under a biological microscope at 1000x magnification.

Gram stain of 3 types of bacteria captured at 400x under the RB30 biological microscope.

The image above is of 3 different types of bacteria with a Gram stain applied to the prepared slide. The image was captured using a 40x Plan Fluor objective lens on the RB30 biological microscope.

Austin Community College provides further information on staining procedures in a printable document here.

Petrographic Examination of Aggregates for Concrete Microscopes

Petrographic examination of aggregates for concrete, mortars, and building stones can help determine if the concrete cured correctly, of if there is any evidence of degradation. Concrete and aggregate testing provides construction managers valuable information during a project including concrete mix, air content, weight, and strengths of concrete.

The Petrographic Examination of Aggregates for Concrete follows guidelines for petrographic microscopes that meet ASTM C295, ASTM C547M and ASTM C856 standards. Both concrete examination microscopes offered by Microscope World meet these standards.

View the petrographic examination of aggregates for concrete microscopes here.

Petrographic Exam Aggregates Concrete Microscope
ASTM C295, ASTM C457M, ASTM C856

The Fein Optic R40PEAC polarizing petrographic microscope for examination of aggregates for concrete provides transmitted light along with high quality strain-free polarizing objectives for the most intensive aggregate and concrete examination work. This system meets standards for ASTM C295, ASTM C457M and ASTM C856.

Petrographic Stereo Microscope

The Fein Optic FZ6PEAC polarizing stereo microscope provides magnification of approximately 6x-150x. This microscope system meets standards for ASTM C295, ASTM C457M and ASTM C856.

Measuring Calipers

Microscope World now offers measuring calipers for measuring a variety of inside and outside diameters on tubes, pipes, metal fabrication and industrial manufacturing. The calipers are available in vernier as well as digital (mm and inches), and even waterproof and coolant proof versions.

Vernier caliper measuring outside diameter.

Vernier caliper measuring inside diameter.

Offset digital caliper.

The digital calipers have several options for downloading the data measurements directly to a computer either with a USB cable, or with a wireless signal.

Digimatic caliper for exporting measurement data.

Waterproof and coolant proof digital caliper.

All measuring calipers can be found here and most categories contain options for both vernier or digital options. If you are looking for a specific type of caliper and can't locate it please contact Microscope World, as not all calipers available are on the website.

Bacillus Subtilis under the Microscope

Bacillus Subtilis is also known as hay bacillus or grass bacillus. It is a gram-positive bacterium found in soil and the GI tract of ruminants and humans. Bacillus subtilis is rod-shaped and typically 4-10 microns long. This bacterium can form a tough, protective endospore that allows it to tolerate extreme environmental conditions.

Bacillus Subtilis captured under the U2 biological microscope at 40x.

Bacillus subtilis is considered one of the best studied gram-positive bacterium and a model organism for studying bacterial chromosome replication and cell differentiation. It is one of the bacterial champions in secreted enzyme production and is used on an industrial scale by biotechnology companies.

Bacillus Subtilis captured under the U2 trinocular microscope at 100x.

Commonly found in the upper layers of the soil, bacillus subtilis can divide symmetrically to make two daughter cells (binary fission), or asymmetrically, producing a single endospore that can remain viable for decades and is resistant to unfavorable environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, extreme pH, radiation and solvents.

Bacillus Subtilis captured under the U2 biology microscope at 400x.

Bacillus subtilis is only known to cause disease in severely immuno-compromised patients and can conversly be used as a probiotic in healthy individuals. The bacteria rarely causes food poisoning.

Bacillus Subtilis captured using the Plan Fluor 40x Microscope Objective on the U2 microscope.

Birth Control Pill Under the Microscope

Ever wonder what the birth control pill looks like under the microscope? Maurice Mikkers started his career in laboratory research where he worked in the Netherlands for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. He eventually traded in his lab coat for a camera and is now working as a freelance photographer.

Mikkers prepared some microscope slides with the birth control Ethinylestradiol / levonorgestrel 0.03/015 pills. After 13 hours, his prepared slides were crystallized and he captured the photographs below using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III 22 megapixel camera mounted on a polarizing microscope.

Birth Control Ethinylestradiol/levonorgestrel 0.03/0.15 under a polarizing microscope. Image Courtesy Maurice Mikkers.

Birth Control Ethinylestradiol/levonorgestrel 0.03/0.15 under a polarizing microscope. Image Courtesy Maurice Mikkers.

Thank you to Maurice for sharing his microscopy images with Microscope World. He has captured a number of different images of drugs and medicine under the microscope and you can view more images by Maurice Mikkers here.