Week Five: "So That's What It Does"

Hello, everyone!! I hope everyone is having as great a Monday as I am! Okay, not really, I've been stuck working on two projects all day. No joke; I've literally been glued to my computer. But, anyways, you know how I missed that one week? Yeah, I know, it was really disappointing to me too, and I'm not joking. Man, was I disappointed in myself for doing that. Well, thanks to my wonderful TA and Lab Instructor Ms. Rebecca Wilson, I get to make that lab up! I'm going to do it tomorrow, so look forward to having one more week on this project!!

But before I begin, can anyone tell me in the comments who said the quote that is this week's title? If you can, you get an internet high five!

So now let's get on to the excitement that comes from this week's lab. I actually have some videos to share with you, as well as some awesome pictures!! So let's get started!

There was a ton more life this week, even more than last week! Of course, my limnus was still there (I think I'll call him McGee, because I like to mess with him just as much as DiNozzio likes to mess with McGee on NCIS).

Okay, here he is, in all of his face-paced glory!!

I know, absolutely adorable, isn't he?! And totally fun to mess with. I tapped the glass probably way too much. And I also noticed that he has some diatoms on him, or those little green things that look like crystals on either side of him. Here are some more on what I'm pretty sure are other limnuses... Limnusi? Limnupeople? WHATEVER!!

And... and... and.... I found an actinosphaerum. What is so special about, I'm sure your asking, you've have plenty of those before. I know, I know!! But this is a dividing actinosphaerum!!

I know!! Completely and totally crazy, right? Oh my gosh, that was such an exciting find!! I nearly shrieked with joy when I found that, although I'm certain Dr. McFarland and the other people in the lab wouldn't have been too keen on that. I didn't catch a video of it because it was so slow, but I did see it move some. Wow, just thinking about it gets me all excited.

So another cool thing that I found was a dianoflagellate! He was just swirling around there in the water. Pretty fast too, because I could only get two pictures of him before he zoomed off into the microscope light. The arrow points to the little guy.

This is probably one of the most awesome things I've seen in my MicroAquarium, mostly because I suppose it's kind of hard to find them this way.

Can't guess what it is? Okay, I'll tell you. It's a stentor. That's right, it's one of these little fellas:

Except the video is from the top view of a stentor. I didn't know what it was at first, until Dr. McFarland told me that I was looking straight down into one. I thought that was pretty sweet, and then managed to catch some side action from one so you can see how it moves.

That's some pretty amazing movement for a stationary little fella.

And I found and even more awesome organism hanging around in another part of my MicroAquarium. Dr. McFarland thinks it may be a rotifer that has a mutation, and I agree with him. After all, he knows more about this than I do.

He's hard to see, because he obviously didn't want his picture taken he was moving around so much! So here's the best that I could do.

So, that's really about it for this week. I know I keep promising to come back and add more stuff, and now that I actually have time this week, I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE TO DO SO!!

So, yeah... Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, music suggestions, Agent Coulson, what you like about this blog, what you don't like, favorite book, you know anything like that. Hey, wait a minute, how did Agent Coulson get in there??? But if you have Agent Coulson, and you would like to leave him in the comments section, I would be so very happy!! I mean, seriously...

Updates coming soon, I promise, promise, promise!!!!

So, signing off for now,

Alison Dyke