We have a new toy in my laboratory…

We have a new toy in my laboratory!

It is a rather cool contraption that can link a variety of smartphones to virtually any kind of light microscope to take high quality photomicrographs. It’s called the Skylight and it looks like this:

And like this when attached to a microscope.

Credit: skylightscope.com

And it looks like this in my lab:

Credit: Baldscientist.

***NOTE: I am not affiliated with the company that makes the Skylight adapter; I have not being compensated in any way to write this blogpost. I am just a (very) satisfied customer.***

For more information please go to http://www.skylightscope.com/.

You probably know that I use planarians in my research. Planarians include some kinds of worms that can regenerate cut body parts, including the head, brain and everything! You didn’t know? Well, look here to know more… Anyway, I am a pharmacologist / neurobiologist / biochemist by training, so my experience with photomicrography is limited at best. I was blown away by the quality of the pictures.

To give you some perspective, here’s a pic of some worms in a dish set on a 1 cm square gridline (taken with just the cellphone), and an enlarged segment:

Credit: Baldscientist

Here is a picture of a worm taken with my cell phone, a stereomicroscope and Skylight:

Credit: Baldscientist.

Here’s a short video!

Credit: Baldscientist.

Here is another picture:

Yes, it is a decapitated planarian. You think it’s dead? Think again!

Credit: Baldscientist.

Here are some planarian heads:

Dead? Nope!

Credit: Baldscientist.

I am having a lot of fun with this! (:-). I knew someone who would have enjoyed this as well… I miss you!

Well, my faithful readers, I’ll talk to you soon!

~~~

Want to see more of the things I write? Go here for some other posts. By the way, I wrote a book! Do you like the brain? Do you like flatworms?

TFB is available as an ebook (Kindle, Nook, as well as in iTunes). The price of the Kindle version was just reduced by Amazon… (:-)

The hardcover is available at Amazon and at the Oxford University Press’ website.  There’s even a 20% discount code from OUP.

This is a popular science book, which I hope to be enjoyed by laypeople and biologists alike.

Shoot me a message if you have any questions!

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For the customary disclaimers go to my “About” page…

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