Today was focused on life at a slightly larger level than nano — fungi and microbes. I am incredibly excited for the mycelium project, and will definitely be documenting the growth of my kit. However, in this blog I will be more focused on the microbial theater activity we did and presented in class.
At first I didn’t really know what to do, so I just fiddled around with the microscope, and examined different things. When I went to wash the petri dish, I noticed the water swirling around, and decided to analyze it. Since my desk is white, I held the petri dish up to where the background was my wall (which is yellow). Once my microscope focused, I thought the picture was really interesting and looked quite nice. Next, I thought I could compare water with saliva since they were both liquids, so I decided to examine my saliva against the microscope. Interestingly, the saliva looked slightly different. One major thing I noticed was that the saliva was filled in in spots where the water was not, and vice versa.
(left: microscope image of tap water / right: microscope image of my saliva)
A conjecture I had, which is probably not very scientific, is that the saliva and water have this “opposite” image due to the fact that one comes from us (living organisms) and the other doesn’t (nonliving). I think this further expands upon the point that we are extremely unique in comparison to our surrounding environment.
My instructor, Gamma leader Zeynep, mentioned that if you had an aquarium and placed some of its water under a microscope, you could actually see tiny creatures. I actually have a fish tank, so I will definitely try this! It will definitely add another perspective by comparing us with nonhuman living things.
Gene Control, learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/control/.
The Epigenome at a Glance, learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/intro/.
“What Is Epigenetics? – Genetics Home Reference – NIH.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/howgeneswork/epigenome.