This episode is sponsored by Squarespace.

Go to squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a   free trial and 10% off your first  purchase of a website or domain. There’s this idea in science that  people sometimes cling to that   assumes our understanding of the world  has to be built on rules and guidelines.

And there are times when that  rigid foundation makes sense. In microscopy, knowing the rules that  govern the way that microbes live,   and the way that light bounces around the world,   goes a long way towards being able to keep  those organisms alive and illuminated. But science is about more than just  finding immutable laws of nature.

It’s about having the imagination to  try and ask questions that might not   necessarily lead anywhere,  but that just… feel right. Questions like “what happens  if we add ink to our samples?” and “how do you make bubbles in the microcosmos?” Some of you might already know the  answer to the question of how James,   our master of microscopes, has  made bubbles in the microcosmos. We talked about it in an episode about  how microbes respond to electricity.

For that episode, James (safely) ran   a small current through water to  generate oxygen and hydrogen gas. So why does electricity make bubbles in water? Well the current breaks water  apart into oxygen and hydrogen gas,   creating bubbles along the  wire where it touches water.

And for James, the bubbles were a really  fun sight to capture under the microscope,   but they also inspired ideas for different  experiments that he wants to carry out, like   seeing how the hydrogen gas  might affect some of his samples. And that’s the very same spirit that has  been guiding microscopists for centuries. Take this slide for example.

It probably looks like James accidentally spilled   some ink on the slide, which is in  fact almost exactly what happened. There is ink on the slide, but  it didn’t get there by accident. James added it on purpose.

As different Paramecium swim in and alongside the  ink, you can see the trails they leave behind— a record of the paths they took along the slide. Many of the early observers of paramecia  relied on ink to understand the organism. For example, Herbert Spencer  Jennings published works in   the early 20th century that described the  movement of the paramecium’s oral cilia,   movement that he was able to see using  India ink he had added to the water.

The movement of the cilia was  recorded in the movement of the ink. There’s something lovely about that  image, almost as if the paramecium   was an artist creating a self-portrait out of  the tools provided by an external observer. Of course, that’s not exactly  what the paramecium was doing.

It was just an organism splashing around in some ink. But there was an artistry to  Jenning’s work. In one paper,   he mentions that he found India ink  to be preferable to other inks like   carmine or indigo thanks to its color,  fineness, and lack of chemical reaction.

And James, well he did his own experimenting as well. Specifically, he wanted to know  what would happen if he added an   invisible ink that becomes visible  under black light to his samples. So he went to a stationary shop, bought some  pens, and squeezed the ink out onto a slide.

And when he illuminated these samples under  UV light, the results were spectacular. The shining blue parts are the ink, and  you can see the way they create these   beautiful galaxy-like structures  that other organisms swim through. Some of the experiments that James does,  like this one with the invisible ink, are   about making beautiful things that might help him  study the microcosmos in new ways in the future.

But sometimes, his experiments  are much more practical. For example, when he started microscopy,  all of the books and papers he came across   described a very important skill for  microscopy called micropipetting. This technique helps you grab just a  tiny bit of a sample from your slide,   the way that James is grabbing  a single tardigrade here.

To do micropipetting, you need a very thin tube. And traditionally, scientists  use glass pipette tubes as the   starting material for their micropipette. They heat the pipette over a Bunsen burner   and slowly stretch the tip out so  that it forms a thin, hollow tube.

But for James, this became a problem  because it required a lot of glass tubes,   and that became quite expensive. So the micropipettes you see him using  here are in fact made from plastic. It took a bit of experimenting for James to figure   out the best way to turn these  pipettes into a micropipette.

But eventually, he figured out how  to use a lighter flame to carefully   heat up the plastic tips and stretch them out. And even after that, it took James months to   perfect the process of actually  using his plastic micropipettes. It’s tough work, you know, trying to chase  a microbe around a slide with a pipette.

In the beginning, he kept losing cells. But eventually, our master of microscopes  also became a master of micropipetting. James put a note on the script here that says, "When I micropipette a tardigrade, I feel like I am "beaming  them up" to the mothership." And James’ experiments continue,   he is always on the hunt for new  techniques to enhance his microscopy.

Sometimes that has meant big changes,  like upgrading his microscope. Other times, that has meant making small changes   to the water his organisms  live in, like adding ink. But for his next experiment,   he’s been messing around with the actual  slides he uses to watch his organisms on.

Usually James watches organisms  on clear, glass slides— you know, the typical slides used  by microscopists all the time. But lately, he’s been trying  out something different. This is a geode slice that, as you can see,  James has laid out on to his microscope.

And even before we turn the  microscope on, it is quite stunning. And then once you turn the microscope on,  the details embedded in the geode become   this gorgeous landscape, with stunning  layers and colors all splayed out. And when James turned on the fluorescent  light source on his microscope,   he was surprised to find that  the slices show autofluorescence.

After digging through some papers, he  suspects that these bright bits are   created by certain trace elements  in the lattice of the geode. But going back to the idea of  these geodes as a landscape… James was inspired to see if he could  actually use these slices as a slide. So he added a drop of pond water to the  geode and placed a cover slip on top.

And we think the final product is super cool,  like if the microcosmos were set against a desert. There’s an almost science-fiction  quality to watching the nematode   here frantically wiggle against this backdrop. And again, this is largely  an aesthetic experiment,   though who knows what scientific questions  it may help James explore in the future.

That is part of the joy of microscopy, a skill  that combines scientific and aesthetic components. It’s not that microscopy has to be pretty. But the ways we construct the  images we see in microscopy   inform the scientific lessons we learn from it.

Plus, sometimes making  beautiful things is just… fun. It’s an experiment in its own  right, a series of questions like “what happens when I do that?” and “I wonder what other people will  think when they look at this?” So for those of you who use the microscope— or any other tool like it— we hope that it helps you explore the world with  the aim to not just understand nature’s rules,   but also to see its beauty in new ways. Thank you for coming on this journey with us as  we explore the unseen world that surrounds us.

And thank you to Squarespace  for sponsoring this episode. Squarespace is a powerful online platform  that helps you create your own website. So whether you’re looking to create  an online portfolio, start a blog,   or even create an online cooking  course, Squarespace can help you out.

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And thank you to our Patreon patrons. All of the people's names that you're  seeing on the screen right now,   they are our patrons on Patreon. They're the folks who have let us experiment  and share on this channel for years.

Thank you so much to everybody on the list here. Whether you've been a patron for  years or just for a couple of days.  We appreciate you so much. If you want to see more from our Master of  Microscopes, James Weiss and why wouldn't you?

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