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Lasers and protozoa

Sounds like a cool project to me :)

Probably not quite as spectacular as a jar of fireflies, but defintely something else and new...
 





How hard are these things to grow? Would be cool to have a tube or flask full of them that fluoresce when you shine a bluray at it.
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Having a bit of time I tried it on a culture of 50,000 cells in 5 ml of solution, but unfortunately, the fluorescence is not visible to the naked eye :(
 
Wow, nice find!

Keep the thread updated, I am really interested in what you will find from further experimentation.
 
Perhaps this same effect is why blu-ray lasers (really, light of a certain wavelength near 405nm) kill certain types of bacteria :beer:
 
BShanahan14rulz said:
Perhaps this same effect is why blu-ray lasers (really, light of a certain wavelength near 405nm) kill certain types of bacteria :beer:
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The two mechanisms are much different: UV radiation kills microorganisms through a direct interaction with DNA, instead the induction of fluorescence was due by a chemical reactions which causes many substances to glow by means a ionizing radiation.
 
Thanks and surely you're the only people who I can talk about my "weird experiments" that I perform outside my work :D
 
Arayan said:
Thanks and surely you're the only people who I can talk about my "weird experiments" that I perform outside my work :D
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You should see my basement! I have a full lab setup in one room and my electronics workshop in another.... the dirtier work gets done in the garage... My friends often wonder what the hell I'm up to with the equipment down there... Why can't you have normal hobbies? is a common question :crackup:
 
Wow that is one interesting find! 10/10
What mW bluray are you using? Does anything happen if you use a higher mW (besides possibly burning the eukaryotes :p )?
Does it only work on that specific type of protozoan?
 
Wow that is one interesting find! 10/10
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:thanks:
What mW bluray are you using? Does anything happen if you use a higher mW (besides possibly burning the eukaryotes )?
Does it only work on that specific type of protozoan?
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I used a blu ray laser from EliteLasers (<5 mW 405 nm) and yes, a laser with higher power probably kill the cells :)
The protist which I used is a ciliated protozoa called Blepharisma japonicum and is the only species (among those which I cultivate) to show this phenomenon.
 
This thread is too cool to let die.

We use a methodology very similar to this in clinical science to detect viruses in cell cultures. In fact, our control is a protozoan that will fluoresce under the same 445nm light as the stained infected cells.

Did you ever further your experiments with this?
 
We use a methodology very similar to this in clinical science to detect viruses in cell cultures. In fact, our control is a protozoan that will fluoresce under the same 445nm light as the stained infected cells.

Did you ever further your experiments with this?
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I tried with all ciliate species that I cultivate, but none shows a similar phenomenon. The only species with a similar pigment is Stentor coeruleus but unfortunately, I don't currently have in culture :(
This thread is too cool to let die.
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:thanks:
 
So i just read that lasers greatly increase algae production in addition to making it glow.

As can be seen here

And I was wondering how useful this could be for making a manna machine, like this

Any thoughts?
 
It doesn't have anything to do with lasers. If you know anything about growing plants, you know that plants like red light and blue light, no matter the source. Red light is red light.

You are in for a long and grueling lesson in futility if you're looking to the bible for technological guidance.
 
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