Trial microscopy page

These photos are not tick-based - they are trials using the borrowed Zeiss Interphako microscope, made in preparation for the search for Lyme disease-causing bacteria.

The specimen is a scraping of pavement epithelial cells from the inner lining of the cheek. This is the material sampled when giving a DNA swab.

The images are taken using different imaging techniques with the microscope and show a central cell with another cell at the top left in each image.

The scale bar is 100 micrometers (mm) with each division being 10 mm or 1/100 mm. 

It is possible to see 1 mm diameter particles on the screen, where a 10 mm division measures 11.4 mm. This means that the 1 mm particles are 1/1.14 mm or 0.877 mm (<0.001 mm), or 877 nanometers across.
 

Positive phase contrast - note the dark nucleus in the centre of the cell (the oval structure).	Negative phase contrast - note the light-colour of the nucleus in the centre of the cell.
Coloured phase contrast - note the presence of colours and entities that are absent from the other micrographs.	Dark-field image - note the appearance of granules and vesicles etc. that are different from the other images.

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