Photography Science

#microbes #nature #water

A Single Drop of Seawater, Magnified 25 Times

April 30, 2014

Christopher Jobson

water

When a wave takes you by surprise at the beach and you accidentally swallow a nasty gulp of salt water, that nasty taste isn’t just salt. Photographer David Littschwager captured this amazing shot of a single drop of seawater magnified 25 times to reveal an entire ecosystem of crab larva, diatoms, bacteria, fish eggs, zooplankton, and even worms. Read more about what you probably don’t want to know at Dive Shield.

Marine Microfauna – part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The magnification was 2x life size, meaning that the actual frame size was a half inch high, so depending on how big the image is on your screen you can calculate the magnification as you see it. To keep as much focus as possible the sample is in as little water as possible just covering the bottom of a 60mm petri dish. That takes about 15 drops of water, but you are only seeing a very small portion of the total sample.

The slide was photographed aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette off Kona, September 20, 2006.

#microbes #nature #water

 

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