One of the most common questions we get asked here on Journey to the
Microcosmos comes from all of you who are thinking of starting your own microscopic journeys and
want a little nudge in the right direction. The question of course is what microscope should I use? And that’s a big question to answer, actually. Our own journey through the microcosmos has meant traveling through the lenses
of a few different microscopes. And that's why— if you’ve ever seen our earlier videos— you know that they look quite a bit
different from what we see today. And that is part of the fun of microscopy. A rotifer under any lens is a thrilling encounter, it’s just that the nature of the encounter
shifts with the light you shine on it. There are so many different ways to see the world, and any microscope can be the right one if it's
helping you get started with your exploration. At the same time, there are thing that will make
a microscope more and less easy to use, more and less versatile, and we wanted to make
it at least a little bit simpler for you to kick off your journey by creating, what we think is
the best starter microscope out there: the Journey to the Microcosmos Microscope. You can buy it on our store,
and many of you already have. So, if you’re asking us what microscope
you should use to start your journey, we have created the microscope
we think is the best one. But of course, getting a microscope
is just step one. There’s a lot to learn along the way. For those of you who are looking for a little
guidance on how to use your microscope, or for those of you who are just curious about
what the microscope looks like in action… well, that’s what we’re all here for today. All of the footage we’re showing for the
rest of the video is footage that James, our master of microscopes, has recorded
using our Microcosmos microscope. And if you don’t have our microscope, that’s okay, most of the tips we’re talking about
today should help you out as you start your microscopy journey, no matter what
microscope you choose to start with. We’re going to focus on brightfield microscopy, which means that we'll be looking at samples
that are illuminated entirely by white light. This is the most straightforward
technique in microscopy, so it’s a great place to start and learn from. But just because it’s simple
does not mean it isn’t powerful. The intensity of the light can render many of
our organisms transparent, giving us a view of the world and structures inside their bodies, like
the cells floating around in our tardigrade here. Now there are times when that light might
shine a little too bright and drown out some other things we might want to see,
so in the future, we might cover some other filters and techniques that will
demonstrate other ways to use the microscope. Now once you have your microscope set up, the next step is to decide what part
of the microcosmos you want to explore. And the good news is the
microcosmos is just about everywhere. You can start out by collecting some
water from a puddle or a nearby pond, or maybe even the saliva in your mouth. Anything that has water is like a little portal
waiting to be opened by your microscope lens. To actually open that portal, you will
need to prepare a slide for your microscope by transferring a small
amount from your sample to a slide. The first few times, you might be tempted to you
know, add a little too much water to the slide, especially because it seems maybe a little
improbable that you’ll find something in a little droplet of water. But microbes are tiny, and so you
probably will find something. And too much water will cause the light
to refract, which will make it difficult to make out all of the spectacular
details lying within their bodies. So you’ll want to try and keep
the sample as thin as possible. But also, if there is something in there you
can actually see with your eyes, you shouldn't make it too thin, because you might crush those organisms
when you add a coverslip, which might be a somewhat traumatic
beginning for your first foray into microscopy. It’s a bit of a Goldilocks situation,
so here’s an example of a correctly and incorrectly prepared slide
to help you see the difference. On the right, you see the water is seeping beyond the borders of the coverslip because
there was just too much water there. The good news of course is that if you
mess up, you can always try again. Our world is a nearly infinite source
of microcosmoses to experiment with, and every mistake is just a different
path than you originally envisioned. Now once you have your slide on the microscope stage,
the next thing you’ll want to play around with is how much light is reaching the slide because that
will influence the quality of the image you see. With too much light, all
the little details like the ridges along this Pinnularia might get washed out. Now one thing you can do
is just dim the light source, but the tool that’s really going to help you adjust the
amount of light is the condenser diaphragm, which James is helpfully demonstrating
here with the help of his cat. As he pushes it one direction,
more light enters the diaphragm, allowing us to see more of
the cat on the other side. Now, instead of a cat, let’s see what happens when you adjust the condenser
diaphragm on the microscope. Starting out, the amoeba in
our view is a little dark. But when James opens the condenser too fast, the
little details inside of it become washed out, turning the organism into like a blobby circle
that has few distinguishing features. But as he closes the condenser again, you can
start to see the scaliness of the shell, and the fainter bits of amoeba
that peek out from within. You might also find your view interrupted by dust and impurities coming from the surface
of the condenser or the light source. If that happens, all you have
to do is adjust the height of the condenser by adjusting the knob on the side. And if you feel like you’re getting
pretty comfortable with the microscope, there’s a technique you can work on to take your
journey to a different level: oil immersion. We have a whole video explaining oil immersion
and how it helps you see up close and personal with some of the most spectacular organisms, but
one thing to know is that you need to be careful. Not all objectives can work with oil immersion,
and if you use the wrong one, you might actually ruin it. And this technique relies on
high-magnification objectives, so you’ll need to be careful
not to move too quickly. If you’re not careful, you can cause
your objective to crash into the slide, which can break the slide but also
more importantly damage the objective. To start, you’ll want to prepare
a slide like normal, you’ll just need to really make sure the sample is
very thin before you add the coverslip. Then, take a drop of the oil that came with
your microscope and put it on the coverslip. Using the 100x objective, turn the focus
knob very gently until you see a clear image. Now I think that one of the
true joys of the microcosmos is getting to share what
you find with other people. In fact, while watching our hydra here, James got so excited about something that he saw that we’re going to be making
a whole episode about it soon. And fortunately, unlike the masters
of microscopes of past centuries, we have many tools that make it possible to
record our journeys and share them with others. James does this by setting up
a camera on a tripod so that the camera looks through the microscope eyepieces. And you can do the same with
a camera or even a phone. Our microscope actually comes with a
phone mount to make this a bit easier, and if you record some fun microscopic
footage, we would love to see it! You can share your footage with
us on social media, on twitter and instagram @journeytomicro or we also have a
submission form now on our store where you can submit footage to possibly be used in
a future episode of Journey to the Microcosmos. We love being able to share the wonders of the
microscopic world with you every single week, and we hope that this video helps
you out at the beginning of your own personal journey through the
unseen world that surrounds us. If you buy the microscope, it also comes with
a series of videos that will help you on your sample collection journeys, setting up the microscope,
and using it in a bunch of different ways. Next week, we’re going to be posting another video
about our Microscope, but this time, I’ll be on camera, doing a full unboxing
video of our Microcosmos Microscope. You’ll see what the microscope
will look like when it arrives, and I’ll show you how to set the whole thing up. There's a bunch of names on the screen
right now, and that's the names of some of our Patreon patrons, the people who allow us
to do the thing that we are doing right now, sharing something truly remarkable about our
universe, not just the fact that we are surrounded by this invisible world that for the vast majority
of human history, was entirely unknown to us, but also advocating for this as an activity, as
a journey that more people can participate in. So thank you so much to
all of our Patreon patrons. If you want to see more from our
Master of Microscopes, James Weiss, you can check out Jam and Germs on Instagram. And if you want to see more from us, there's
always a subscribe button somewhere nearby.
