A tiny rock flower

Let us place ourselves in the middle of the picture. To our right, a bunch of white transparent polycrystals; to our left, three light-blue colossal cubes enclosing a little white crystal. In the midst of what seems a bulling exercise, one shall bring light and

Iris germanica, leaf of a monocotyledon plant, cross section

The leaf of the Iris Germanica is unifacial in its upper part, this means that both sides are equal. Its lower part however becomes increasingly bifacial; the opposite sides resemble each other increasingly less. Both sides of the leaf have the same number of stomata, being an indicator for unifacial leaves. A "cap" of sclerenchyma fibers closes in to the phloem vessels at the outside. It protects and gives the leave tensile and tear strength at the same time. Vascular bundles are leaf veins. The Iris germanica can be recognized as a monocot by their parallel veined leaves.

Iris is a genus of 260–300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a

Beauty is Everywhere!

It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In Microscopy it can simple be hidden and putting together the correct configuration may uncover beautiful secrets. A small strip of plastic wrap used for food packaging will look just like a regular transparent plastic if you use standard brightfield conditions but…. What happens if you use Polarization?

Polarized light microscopes are designed for the examination of birefringent samples. A material is consider birefringent when

Wool, too tight for comfort?

Wool has been a precious raw material for people for a long time. Yarns have been spun out of wool fibres for several millenniums. As the range of available fibres was limited in the past, wool used to be a very valuable commodity. Today we are able to select between

The story of a broken heart

Reddish colours and smooth faces claim the attention of any mineralogist. Vanadinites, the crystal incrustations showed in the image, are a rare mineral. They only occur as a product of oxidation of other minerals composed of lead, like galena.

The origin of the one photographed is Morocco, where its arid climate makes the perfect conditions for its synthesis.

Desmids, beauties in microscopy

This photomicrograph shows Micrasterias fimbriata, a type of green alga called a desmid. Micrasterias fimbriata belongs to one of the rare desmids of the Lowlands. This one was recently found in a fen in the north of Belgium. Micrasterias is named from the Greek mikros, "small" plus aster, "star".

Desmids usually inhabit the acidic waters associated with sphagnum (peat) bogs. These particular desmids are flat, plate-like single cells made up of

Stentor water ballet

Stentor is a genus of protozoan that is found in stagnant freshwater lakes and slow moving streams. In this case they were found in a partly frozen, small lake near Berlin, Germany, by the end of December 2014. The microorganism is named for a Greek hero in the Trojan War, who was renowned for his loud voice, in an analogous way to the sound of a trumpet rising up over the sound of other instruments. The description is fitting the microorganism because the organism is shaped somewhat like a trumpet.

Stentor species that live individual are too small to be noticed. The species that form colonies are so extremely common that they can be

Prostate

The prostate gland is shaped like a donut, weighs about an ounce and is the size of a chestnut. It consists 30% muscular tissue and 70% glandular tissue.
The prostate gland is just below the bladder, behind the pubic bone and just in front of the rectum. The prostate wraps around the urethra, which is the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis.

The prostate helps to control the flow of urine. During sexual activity, the seminal vesicles that are attached to the prostate

A frozen realm

The agate is maybe the most well known form of chalcedony. It is composed of microcrystallized quartz, which during its crystallization can trap impurities inside it in a way that the optic features of

Distinct differentiation of urine sediments requires Phase Contrast as a method of choice

Besides the identification of urinary passage infections a qualified investigation of urine sediments always has to reveal their renal or post-renal origin. As a consequence, bacteria, cylinder and erythrocytes have to be recognized clearly.

The microscopic examination of urine sediments deals with unstained, native samples; single colorless components can hardly be recognized in transmitted bright field and thus are easily overlooked.

Only an adequate contrast method will ensure the positive detection of cells and other low-contrast structures in urine sediments.

The necessary image quality can easily be achieved by using the optional Phase contrast on a transmitted light microscope. A quick switch between bright field and Phase contrast is possible and facilitate both illumination methods on one instrument.

Colored crystals and cell aggregations are treated with bright field, while Phase contrast allows a detailed identification of morphologic anomalies like dysmorphic erythrocytes and hyaline matrices (cylinder).

Some examples:

Picture 1 and 2

Phase contrast allows the distinct detection of the cylindrical structure. In bright field the Tamm-Horsfall protein is quite transparent and can easily be overlooked. In case cell structures are located within a hyaline matrix, the renal origin of these cells is obvious. The morphology of erythrocytes (eumorphic or dysmorphic) gives evidence to renal or post-renal bleeding.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3 and 4

The abundance of bacteria