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FrozenGate by Avery

Laser "microscope"

Here is the experiment done by Arbor Scientific. The narrator unfortunately misidentifies the wavelength of the laser; but the experiment works perfectly. The water acts as a small lens and assists in magnification. Bill

YouTube - Green Laser Microscope

Yeah, they're pretty close to the images I was seeing. And the same drop of water idea too.

Damn, now I want a laser with a frequency of 650nm. :P
 





btw, frequency isn't a measurement of distance.

Try using hard-disk platters from a junked hard drive. Put your specimen on it, and focus laser to a point (assuming low power so you don't fry your sample).

I didn't see details as you did with your cell, but I did see quite a bit of magnification.
 
Uranium: I doubt the image you obtained is of a cell. It looks like a common interference pattern caused by a small object or pit on slide. The cell's nucleus it too small. Once you get a near diffraction limited sized spot the energy density would be so high you'd cook the cell.

The Arbor Scientific video is the way to go. I'm going to try it this evening.
 
Success!!

Here's a picture of the new projector:
PondScumProjector_2.jpg


The laser is attached to a tripod head using a rubber band (15-20mW 635 nm - you don't need or want a powerful laser for this). I adjusted the focus so most of the drop was hit by the laser stripe. I'm using an eyedropper. There's an alligator clip (with tape attached so the teeth of the gator clip don't damage the bulb of the dropper) used to squeeze out a drop of water. Cut out a hole in some cardboard to suspend the eyedropper.

Here are a couple videos. First video has some larger fleas. Second video has smaller spots which may or may not be bacteria sized critters. I don't think there's enough magnification.

I don't want to go swimming any more. There's a lot of stuff in the water!



 
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Maybe with 1 watt of 445 there would be flaming water fleas followed by a melting eye dropper......
 
This is truly one of the coolest things that you can show elementary school children with just 5mW of power. It's a great experiment with lots of "WOW" factor. Bill
 
Alright, so after playing with the HeNe setup, I realized, I don't care if bacteria die! So I set up my highest power green. After turning it on and looking at the wall, I shat bricks. wow. 8 feet across of nothing but little bacteria, moving, fighting, feeding.

The setup,



The video
 
HOLY SH*T! Was that a cat?








J/K :p that was f$cking awesome! I'm still watching this, it's SO crazy! I have to do this later!
 


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