[Short Prologue: This blog is always a shadow in the back of my mind, but after nearly eight hours of writing Monday to Friday (my current full-time job), blogging--unfortunately--usually ends up being the very last thing on my 'To Do' list (cast away with a few other unfulfilled tasks under the invisible subtitle: 'Things That I Won't Have Time For Today, But Wouldn't It Be Nice If I Did?'). Luckily, I've found a different, less time-consuming outlet for my curious roving mind, which is posting photomicrographs pretty much daily on my Instagram account, 'itsy_snap'--a kind of microblog). This post provides a bit of an explanation of how I feel when doing so.]
***
There's something to be said about being privy to characters and
settings unknown to most; storylines that can never be recounted by anyone else but the [conscientious] voyeur.
I had my first epiphanous moment one day in the summer of 2011, sitting in the FLAMES Lab at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre in Dorset, Ontario, Canada. I'd been racking my brain trying to find out what wasn't clicking within my experimental design, so I decided to devote my beautiful summery Saturday to getting the most detailed possible glimpse into the relatively short lives of my zooplankton protagonists. I plopped a single spiny water flea (an invasive invertebrate zooplanktivore) onto a glass slide and let the show go on.
A few hours in, my younger sister called, and I picked up. We talked for a while, but I never took my eyes off the 'scope. Then, suddenly, I interrupted her. "Oh my God! It's pooping! I've got to go. Call you back later." She burst into peals of laughter, but my heart was racing with excitement. Mind you, the excretion process ended up taking an excruciatingly loooong time (which is probably not normally the case, seeing as the poor critter was suspended in a drop of water, rather than swimming about freely), so my enthusiasm eventually died down. But I never forgot the exhilarating rush of that biochemical high, of registering something new--which I hadn't read about anywhere in my stacks of reprints--via my very own eyeballs.
Fast forward to the present. Not much has changed for me these days. The microscope is an amazing contraption, and I realize it more every day. My geographical coordinates have changed tremendously since my lab days (I'm in a different time zone, smothered in a blanket of smog and surrounded by drab concrete, genetically related yet decidedly different people, and the occasional courageous rat...rather than the trees, lakes, and wildlife I'd grown up with), but the microscope stage has become my proverbial 'cave' (think Fight Club). It's safe, and familiar, yet not quite the latter.
So, I feel like a voyeur (minus any weird kinds of social and/or legal perversion), bottom line, when I'm glued to my microscope. These are completely everyday, accessible (with the right tools) subjects, too small to be noticed, or too insignificant to warrant more than a few seconds of human-powered thought. I enjoy being a bystander, a witness, and all I have left of each novel experience is a digital image.
Which I'm happy with. :)
***
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Monday, May 13, 2013
FOUND: Korean Daphnia! [Video]
Wish for Korean zooplankton fulfilled! Went to check out Nami Island yesterday, and came across this shallow pond:
.JPG)
Upon closer inspection, it was clear the place was popping with plankton! Check out the short clip below. Watched them zoom around for a bit, then examined a few up close with the naked eye. A couple of them had ~20-30 eggs in their broodsacs.
I'm super happy! :D
.JPG)
Upon closer inspection, it was clear the place was popping with plankton! Check out the short clip below. Watched them zoom around for a bit, then examined a few up close with the naked eye. A couple of them had ~20-30 eggs in their broodsacs.
I'm super happy! :D
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Missing zooplankton... [Video Clips]
That's it, as the title says.
Nine and a half months into my stay in Seoul, I miss these tiny critters. Took a brief trip out of the city yesterday, and found myself wishing I had a plankton net to see what I could pull up out of the reservoir! Will have to seek out some Korean plankton very soon now that nice weather is upon us.
With that, I'll leave you with some random clips starring zooplankton...enjoy!
First, my favourite zooplankter (I'm biased) and also a serious problem in some parts of the world, the spiny water flea (2 parts):
Daphnia "playing with Volvox":
Super-cool bioluminescent plankton in a Maldivian Lagoon:
'The Secret Life of Plankton' by Tierney Thys (via TEDEducation)...nicely done:
Nine and a half months into my stay in Seoul, I miss these tiny critters. Took a brief trip out of the city yesterday, and found myself wishing I had a plankton net to see what I could pull up out of the reservoir! Will have to seek out some Korean plankton very soon now that nice weather is upon us.
With that, I'll leave you with some random clips starring zooplankton...enjoy!
First, my favourite zooplankter (I'm biased) and also a serious problem in some parts of the world, the spiny water flea (2 parts):
Daphnia "playing with Volvox":
Super-cool bioluminescent plankton in a Maldivian Lagoon:
'The Secret Life of Plankton' by Tierney Thys (via TEDEducation)...nicely done:
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
[Photolog] Misc. 'scope shots
Pulled out my trusty--albeit dusty--dissecting 'scope to take close-ups of some everyday objects around my apartment...thought I'd share the results. :)
Photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 through the 'scope's eyepiece at whichever magnification yielded what I thought to be the most picturesque perspective.
Photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 through the 'scope's eyepiece at whichever magnification yielded what I thought to be the most picturesque perspective.
 |
| MAC makeup brush (not cleaned). |
 |
| Feather. |
 |
| Pepita. |
 |
| Leather. |
 |
| Almond. |
 |
| Walnut. |
 |
| 10,000 won bill. |
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
An ode to the spiny water flea
This post is about a special kind of relationship...that is, the [sometimes] love-hate relationship that invariably develops between a grad student and his/her study organism.
<geekmode>
For yours truly, it was the tiny but mighty spiny water flea, Bythotrephes longimanus. Measuring all of a centimetre long (give or take a few millimetres), they're definitely no charismatic megafauna. Quite the opposite actually - they can be downright ugly to some.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Being native to much of Europe and Asia, spiny water fleas have wreaked havoc on many a freshwater ecosystem in North America. As such, I devoted almost six years of my life finding out all I could about these predatory plankton--from what fuels them to what weakens them. Despite the negative stereotypes that invasive species are often branded with, I couldn't help but develop a special fondness for spiny water fleas over the years. I did, after all, spend many days in the lab feeding and cleaning up after them...as well as many nights waiting with bated breath for pregnant mothers to give birth. I'll admit...I'd silently thrill at the sight of a fat juicy broodsac.
And as August fades away, so will many of the invasive spiny water flea populations back home. I can't help but wonder what the yields were like this year, especially given the unusually warm weather (note: spiny water fleas are like humans in that they prefer room temperature - I found they seemed happiest in 21ºC water). Were they eating enough? Did they build up their resting egg banks enough to come back with a vengeance next spring? Did they find new lakes to invade?
Since my printed dissertation containing the following dedication (p. xi) to these powerpuff plankton will likely lie in a dusty corner unopened, I'm gonna go out on a limb and declare my admiration for these organisms (despite their bad rap!)...right here on my own desolate cyber turf.
(Note: this ode served to summarize much of what I discovered about spiny water fleas over the course of my studies. Also, I'm no poet.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An ode to the spiny water flea
For this is the story of your life,
One of success, but initially strife.
Confined to a ship ballast*, it’s lipids you lack,
An immigrant from Russia, only a broodsac on your back.
Straining your eye in the dark, you swim feebly forward,
Spot a glimmer of movement, flex your spine like a sword.
Looping and spiraling with renewed anticipation,
You grasp your spent sister and proceed to the decapitation.
With the elixir of life flowing dark through your gut,
Naturally selected to endure—no if’s, and’s, or but’s!
When at long last, is that sunlight you see?
Discharged into the New World...yet it seems habitable, seriously.
Your feverish palate delights at the unsuspecting buffet,
And you feast on bosminids ‘till your broodsac ruptures away.
Moonlight is glistening on the warm surface waters,
As you rise and release (in your image) two beautiful daughters.
On you persist while another broodsac blisters,
A week later, it’s a boy, and his hefty twin sisters.
You’re senescent and tired, but now it’s okay,
You sink to the sediments where just your soft parts decay.
To be found decades later by keen scientists,
Intrigued by your life story, a plot thick with twists.
It’s here I digress, and feel the need to pay tribute,
Without the sacrifice of your descendants, this story would stay mute.
You’ve left a legacy far longer than your spine,
Been the star of countless chapters, six of them mine**.
Spaseeba.
* Bythotrephes was most likely transported to North America in ballast tanks as diapausing resting eggs, not as live organisms. Dramatization for creative purposes only.
** And for that I thank the chubby shrimp, the ones hatched in brine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</geekmode>
<geekmode>
For yours truly, it was the tiny but mighty spiny water flea, Bythotrephes longimanus. Measuring all of a centimetre long (give or take a few millimetres), they're definitely no charismatic megafauna. Quite the opposite actually - they can be downright ugly to some.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Being native to much of Europe and Asia, spiny water fleas have wreaked havoc on many a freshwater ecosystem in North America. As such, I devoted almost six years of my life finding out all I could about these predatory plankton--from what fuels them to what weakens them. Despite the negative stereotypes that invasive species are often branded with, I couldn't help but develop a special fondness for spiny water fleas over the years. I did, after all, spend many days in the lab feeding and cleaning up after them...as well as many nights waiting with bated breath for pregnant mothers to give birth. I'll admit...I'd silently thrill at the sight of a fat juicy broodsac.
And as August fades away, so will many of the invasive spiny water flea populations back home. I can't help but wonder what the yields were like this year, especially given the unusually warm weather (note: spiny water fleas are like humans in that they prefer room temperature - I found they seemed happiest in 21ºC water). Were they eating enough? Did they build up their resting egg banks enough to come back with a vengeance next spring? Did they find new lakes to invade?
Since my printed dissertation containing the following dedication (p. xi) to these powerpuff plankton will likely lie in a dusty corner unopened, I'm gonna go out on a limb and declare my admiration for these organisms (despite their bad rap!)...right here on my own desolate cyber turf.
(Note: this ode served to summarize much of what I discovered about spiny water fleas over the course of my studies. Also, I'm no poet.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An ode to the spiny water flea
For this is the story of your life,
One of success, but initially strife.
Confined to a ship ballast*, it’s lipids you lack,
An immigrant from Russia, only a broodsac on your back.
Straining your eye in the dark, you swim feebly forward,
Spot a glimmer of movement, flex your spine like a sword.
Looping and spiraling with renewed anticipation,
You grasp your spent sister and proceed to the decapitation.
With the elixir of life flowing dark through your gut,
Naturally selected to endure—no if’s, and’s, or but’s!
When at long last, is that sunlight you see?
Discharged into the New World...yet it seems habitable, seriously.
Your feverish palate delights at the unsuspecting buffet,
And you feast on bosminids ‘till your broodsac ruptures away.
Moonlight is glistening on the warm surface waters,
As you rise and release (in your image) two beautiful daughters.
On you persist while another broodsac blisters,
A week later, it’s a boy, and his hefty twin sisters.
You’re senescent and tired, but now it’s okay,
You sink to the sediments where just your soft parts decay.
To be found decades later by keen scientists,
Intrigued by your life story, a plot thick with twists.
It’s here I digress, and feel the need to pay tribute,
Without the sacrifice of your descendants, this story would stay mute.
You’ve left a legacy far longer than your spine,
Been the star of countless chapters, six of them mine**.
Spaseeba.
* Bythotrephes was most likely transported to North America in ballast tanks as diapausing resting eggs, not as live organisms. Dramatization for creative purposes only.
** And for that I thank the chubby shrimp, the ones hatched in brine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</geekmode>
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
#BLACKOUTSPEAKOUT
For more info: www.blackoutspeakout.ca/about.php
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