Hannes

I would assume, you win an n-month subscription of that guilty feeling when you know you should have cleaned them right after use, but you didn’t so now you take a new one, until all are used and you have to clean them all again?

I have an idea. You could link stuff with metal “guide rails” and then have a sort of car with metal wheels be guided by those rails. And it fits many people for maximum efficiency. Idk what you would call such a thing though. Might need to train some LLM to come up with a name.

Wait…

“TRAIN”! :0

I have two of those from my childhood “treasure” collection. Where’s my wealth? :0

I’m ashamed to admit that I know what these are from watching too many asmr videos to try to fall asleep lol

Me too haha
I guess I’ll have to wait and see 😅

Wait. Nevermind. My microscope came with a DAPI cube and mercury light. I think that should work? :D

My first ever UV microscopy image! This is a Halacaridae mite, but I think it might just be an exoskeleton. It glowed gloriously under the UV light source!

#marineplankton 🦑

Beautiful! What do you use as a lightsource?
I have a small 365nm flashlight and would love to be able to do this, but I think it is probably far too weak for microscopy?

(Still waiting for my objectives, so I cannot try, sadly)

I am horrified by every aspect of this

Four photos of the deep sea acorn worm Tergivelum cinnabarinum leaving a distinct, spiral-shaped feeding trail on the sediment. Photo from: Jones, D. O., Alt, C. H., Priede, I. G., Reid, W. D., Wigham, B. D., Billett, D. S., Gebruk, A. V., Rogacheva, A. & Gooday, A. J. (2013). Deep-sea surface-dwelling enteropneusts from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: their ecology, distribution and mode of life. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 98, 374-387.

Tergivelum cinnabarium is species of deep sea acorn worm which is noted for being a big fan of Junjo Ito's Uzumaki
#Invertebrate 🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

will this shrimp be an enrichment to your life, your surroundings, and everything else? Hell yes!

I’ve also checked the address for typos a billion times by now and it is definitely correct. I don’t know what their problem is.

FedEx still hasn’t managed to deliver my package because apparently my address doesn’t exist. (Spoiler: It does which I happen to know because I live there)

They have now called me to confirm the address *again* and said, it will be delivered on Monday.
Wish me luck that they find it this time 😑

I guess I’ll have to wait still until I can finally use my new microscope :(

Oops. I almost said something positive about FedEx last week, when they managed to get my package from Japan to near my city in only 3 days.

(But then they tried to deliver it to somewhere in the wrong city and it has been stuck in that city since and the delivery date ._.)

Look closely at the surface of the sea cucumber…

There’s a strange little creature hiding there!
This scale worm changes its coloring to match its sea cucumber host.

You’d never notice it unless it moves. Such amazing camouflage! ✨️

Olympus BX41 compound microscope with trinocular head, fluorescence capability (has three filter cubes), and a phase contrast condenser. Next to it the power supply for the mercury vapour lamp. The microscope is fully functional (electronics and mechanics work perfectly) I just need to get some eye pieces and objectives.

Interesting times ahead!
Just bought this microscope today and carried it (with the help of 4 different trains) halfway across Germany. My back hurts, I am exhausted, but it was very worth it!

#microscope #biology

Beautiful!

Drawing of a dragon flower mantis as seen from above. The mantis is incredibly long and thin, with a mostly orange body and a very long yellow thorax.

Dragon Flower Mantis
(Toxodera integrifolia)

#AppreciateADragonDay

There are still some stacking errors here I need to fix. Don't look too closely at the bristles, please :P

A round, slightly oval sponge with lots of bumps against black background. It has a lot of long calcareous bristles sticking out. The opening (osculum) is pointing towards the right. On this side the Bristles are significantly shorter than on the other side. Some of the bristles end in a crown of backwards pointing spines.

Another sponge from the university collection. This one is really weird! (If anyone knows has tips for ID, let me know! It wasn't labeled)

#MarineLife #Nature

Barry Webb's photograph of glistening Comatricha nigra slime moulds titled "Glistening Slime Mould". It won the people's choice in the macro category of the British Photography Awards 2025 Photographed on an old, rotting fence post in my back garden. I used a spray bottle to create a wet foreground to add a reflection and give the image an extra dimension. These fruiting bodies are around 2.5mm tall. 56 images were focus stacked to create the final image. Camera settings: 2.0 sec, f3.2, ISO 400 Source: https://www.britishphotographyawards.org/2025-shortlist/shortlist/macro/glistening-slime-mould/d4795926-9090-4f80-b07b-e7a743ec9459

Check out these beautiful macro photographs of Slime Moulds by Barry Webb at www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro...

Additional links -
Fungi: www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro...
Instagram: www.instagram.com/barrywebbima...
Slime mould info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mo
#Nature

I tried that soap bubble freezing thing. Catastrophic failure. ☹️

iNat has rekindled my love for nature and kept me sane and motivated throughout my biology degree. Thank you for all your work and for co-founding such a great and kind place on the internet!
I‘m excited to see your other projects come to life! :)

Confocal microscopy image of a juvenile sea star (Patiria miniata) viewed from the oral side. The animal has a five-armed, star-shaped body with a central nerve ring. The nervous system is labeled in green, forming radial nerve cords extending into each arm, and cell nuclei are labeled in red throughout the animal. The image appears against a black background and has a holiday-ornament-like appearance.

Felt a little festive at the microscope this morning for #FluorescenceFriday 🎄

Here’s the nervous system of a juvenile sea star ⭐️

Green = acetylated tubulin, red = nuclei

Happy holidays!

Sponge skeleton against black background: The whole thing is tube shaped, only the upper third is visible, coming into the frame from the bottom right corner. At the end, the spicules form an organic web-like structure, fanning out towards edges. On the side, the spicules are arranges horizontally and vertically, forming rectangles. There are additional fan-like formations at regular intervals.

Happy new year! :D
I have no pictures of fireworks, but I have this one of a siliceous sponge skeleton from the university collection.

#MarineLife #Photography

A white fish with yellow bars and yellow fin rays. Its dorsal and anal fins have very long yellow filaments extending from them. It is sheltering in the tentacles of a round, translucent jellyfish with short tentacles. #Blackwater #UnderwaterPhotography #MacroPhotography #Macro #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography

A white fish with yellow bars and yellow fin rays. Its dorsal and anal fins have very long yellow filaments extending from them. It is sheltering in the tentacles of a round, translucent jellyfish with short tentacles. #Blackwater #UnderwaterPhotography #MacroPhotography #Macro #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography

A juvenile jack sheltering in a crystal jelly. They are part of the daily diel migration which brings plankton and associated critters up from the depths to the surface at night.
Pic from Balayan Bay, Anilao

#Fishmas #MarineLife 🌿🐟

A brightfield image of Macrothrix sp. It's shape is roughly like that of a daphniid, but it has an elephant-trunk-like snoot and long spines at the posterior margin of the carapace. It is completely transparent, only the gut is slightly yellowish

For the 17th day of #Crustmas, I have another water flea. This one was found in a tropical greenhouse. It's Macrothrix sp., but the exact species is probably not determinable without DNA analysis(?)

Look at the snoot! :D

#pondlife #microscopy

A calanoid copepod under the microscope. It has very long antennae with one antennae having thickened and orange segments in the center. Apart from that, the copepod appears colourless

A copepod for #Crustmas day 15 🦀
This one's a Calanoid copepod from Spain which I sadly do not know how to ID further ( Help much appreciated! :D )
The enlarged antenna segments are interesting as well. I have no idea what they are for and why they're only on one antenna.

#marinelife #copepod