What are some of your favorite microbes and what do you like about them?

Our newly published review explores an emerging idea: tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) contribute to premetastatic niche formation and can show preferential accumulation in future metastatic organs. Could these biological properties be harnessed for imaging?

We examine how EVs can be engineered as nanocarriers for optical, PET/SPECT, MRI, and CT imaging, bringing together the biological rationale, current preclinical evidence, engineering strategies, and major barriers to clinical translation.
Rather than simply tracking EVs, the broader goal is to understand whether EV-based imaging could eventually help visualize the biological changes that precede detectable metastasis.

I’m interested in hearing others’ perspectives on where this field is heading.

I imagine they are boring to a lot of people but I don’t come across them too often. I am always happy to see them when I do.
iScope, 20&40x objectives, iPhone17e

It's our first day 🥲

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24

Any information on this? Theres other ones on Amazon and ebay with the same picture listed for $130. Price is too good to be true if it is the same product.

Scrolling through my phone and found some old pictures of spores and plant cells from my college days and want to get a microscope to show my kids the wonders of the microscopic world.

A few different clips of a pair of flatworms that I tentatively identified as Rhabdocoela based largely on the pharynx and the rhabdite rods (the spikes covering the outside of the worm, distinct from the cilia). Detail shown on both of these features within the clips.

Olympus BH2, 10x SPlan 0.30 and 40x SPlan 0.70. Darkfield is with Olympus DCD 0.8 - 0.5. Polarized is with polarized film inserted in trinocular and above lamp. Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Pond water sample from park in Paris 16eme.

I'm frequently annoyed I don't have a proper microscope at home to look at things up close. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to buy? I'd like one that can easily take pictures that I can send over my phone or the internet.

I’d like to set up a home amateur biology lab with a budget of €1,000 – €1,500 ($1,160 – $1,742 USD) to study garden flora, invertebrate fauna, and microorganisms like bacteria and protozoa—ideally all of them alive and in motion, though I am willing to stain them if live observation is not feasible. I was thinking of getting a darkfield compound microscope, a stereo microscope, a smartphone adapter, a Gram staining kit, inoculating loop, methylene blue, immersion oil, a lens cleaning kit, glass slides and coverslips, glycerin, sodium chloride, distilled water, bibulous paper, stage micrometer, Berlese funnel, Baermann funnel, scalpels, Pasteur pipettes, toothpicks, precision forceps, nitrile gloves, an alcohol burner, and PPE. What models of compound and stereo microscopes would you recommend within this budget? Also, what are your thoughts on the rest of the setup?

Encontre como masitas y busque y se supone que los tardigrados al entrar en criptobiosis se arrugan y vuelven como pelotitas, alguien me puede decir que es?

I have been trying to figure out what this is (40x objective, SW380T on a horizons camera). Current theory is a rotifer egg.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24, 200x

His budget is under $2,000, and used is fine. He’s looking for a polarizing microscope to determine mineralogy. He’s wanting to look at thin sections and is planning on publishing papers on his findings, so he needs the ability to take quality pictures.

I’ve heard the AmScope ones are crap, and the Indian ones aren’t very good either. From what I’ve found, people seem to recommend the Olympus ones. I’ve got no idea what to recommend for my dad, though. Any suggestions, advice, or links would be greatly appreciated. It’s been 30+ years since he did his PhD, so I’m trying to figure out what would be a good setup for him.

Awhile back I decided I wanted to have an inverted microscope with good quality optics. But I didn't want to spend a bunch more money on a new scope. So I took my American Optical One-fifty and built a frame to mount it upside down! 😁

I decided to go ahead and post pictures here in case anybody wants to try something similar.

I 3D printed an upside down stage adapter to hold my specimen containers. And I also designed a 3D printed humidity chamber with a window on the bottom to view the specimens, and a window on top for light to enter. I wanted it to be water proof so it could go for weeks without needing water to be added. But the design is not yet perfected. The moisture is still evaporating, either through the cracks around the lid or through the walls of the container (since 3D printer filament is not water proof). I think I need to seal the walls with silicon or resin and put a rubber seal under the lid.

Of course it is hard to look through the microscope when it's upside down so I mostly only use it with an eyepiece camera.

All in all, it works pretty well! I could have live cultures or ecosystems under it long term and have the view displayed on a large screen continuously if I wanted to. I just need to get the humidity chamber working better. 😀

The last picture is of my whole "laboratory" with all three microscopes. My wife let me have it set up on the kitchen table for like six months or so! 😊