Barnard Awards for Videomicrographs – 2021
Charles Hussey judged the videomicrographs before they were shown at the Annual Exhibition of Microscopy at Potters Bar on Sunday 3rd October 2021, and had the difficult job of deciding which of the excellent videos from members of the Quekett, the Iceni Microscopy Study Group and the Postal Microscopical Society were of a sufficiently high standard to deserve a certificate.
Steve Gill announced the entries that deserved certificates during the gossip meeting on Friday 8th October:
- Willem Cramer for ‘Trichocerca bicristata eating algae’ for capturing interesting behaviour where you can clearly see what is going on.
- Carel Sartory for ‘Thin section of chalcedony from Cornwall’ for choosing a specimen that demonstrates the effectiveness of polarisation in a pleasing manner.
- Jeffrey Silverman for ‘Colpodid eats Colpodid’ for a well-filmed instance of striking behaviour.
- Jan van Ijken for ‘Polychaete worm larva at metatrochophore stage’ for excellent orientation and editing resulting in a charming video.
Willem Cramer
Coleps cell division
Coleps is a barrel-shaped ciliate, length 50 to 80 microns, notable for its regularly arranged ectoplasmic shields, or platelets, of calcium carbonate. The covering with the scales is sometimes completely or partly absent immediately after an amitotic division (direct cleavage of the nucleus without the formation of mitoses). This is clearly visible in the video. Cell division took approximately 45 minutes. The colour of the cell is usually brown and is less determined by the colour of the food consumed than with other ciliates.
Motic AE31E inverted microscope with Plan Apo 10× objective, mercury lamp for epi fluorescence, long pass fluorescence filter, excitation 480 nm. Moticam ProS5 Plus and S6 cameras using Moticam Images Plus on a Windows PC. Edited in Corel Video Studio Ultimate. Mounting agent Eukit, fluorescence dye not given.
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Fluorescent pine needles
Fluorescence microscopy not only produces beautiful images, but it also reveals several characteristic structures, as shown here in some cross-sections of conifer needles. In the video some structures are clearly visible, such as for example the cuticle, epidermis, resin channels, endodermis, xylem and phloem.
Motic AE31E inverted microscope with Plan Apo 10× objective, mercury lamp for epi fluorescence, long pass fluorescence filter, excitation 480 nm. Moticam ProS5 Plus and S6 cameras using Moticam Images Plus on a Windows PC. Edited in Corel Video Studio Ultimate.
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Trichocerca bicristata eating algae – Barnard Certificate
This rotifer is mainly found in oligo saprobic water of pools and puddles in spring and autumn. Rotifers have lobes on their bodies that look like rotating toothed wheels under the light microscope. These parts consist of small protrusions that move back and forth quickly. This creates a vortex with which the rotifer sucks in dead organic material, algae and protozoa. An important part of the rotifer is the chewing device, the mastax, a set of muscles and hard, sclerified parts. This can be seen in the video, where the animal taps into the cells of an algae one by one to suck in the cell contents.
Motic AE31E inverted microscope with Plan Apo 20× and 40×objectives, LED transmitted illumination. Moticam 1080 camera. Vidoe edited in Corel Video Studio Ultimate.
Charles Hussey’s comment: Captures interesting behaviour where you can clearly see what is going on.
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Alan Jones
Home-made tomato feed
Brunel SP 500 compound microscope with 40× Plan objective. Brunel HDMI Camera mounted on a photo tube and connected to an analogue television. TV screen shot using a mobile phone, downloaded to a computer running Windows 10. Unable to connect microscope camera to computer due to incompatibility.
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Home-made tomato feed 2
Brunel SP 500 compound microscope with 40× Plan objective, off-centre darkfield condenser. Brunel HDMI Camera mounted on a photo tube and connected to an analogue television. TV screen shot hand-held using a mobile phone, downloaded to a computer running Windows 10. Unable to connect microscope camera to computer due to incompatibility.
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Exploring a home-made tomato feed concoction – Honourable Mention
Brunel SP500 compound microscope with 20× Plan objective. Brunel HDMI Camera mounted on photo tube and connected to an analogue television. TV screen shot using a mobile phone, downloaded to a computer running Windows 10. Unable to connect microscope camera due to computer incompatibly.
Charles Hussey’s comment: Persevered when faced with technical difficulties. His video is quite mesmerising.
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David Linstead
Plumatella Bryozoan
The bryozoan Plumatella, lophophore showing ciliary current and ‘cleaning’ of tentacles by what appears to be a small rotifer. Nikon stereomicroscope, zoom setting used to frame image, approximately ×1–×2, mixed incident and transmitted illumination. Sony NEX-5R camera afocally coupled to a threaded ×8 wide angle non-compensating eyepiece. Video post-processing with Serif Movie Plus X6.
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Large protozoan Trachelius
The large ciliate protozoan Trachelius. Zeiss Standard microscope with Zeiss DIC condenser and analyser, Reichert ×16 fluorite objective, halogen illumination. Panasonic DMC GX9 camera, afocal coupling to a Leitz Vario-Orthomat variable zoom photoeyepiece, set to ×10. Video post-processing with Serif Movie Plus X6.
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Limnias rotifer: detail of wheel organ
The rotifer Limnias, showing fine detail of the cilia of the wheel organ. Zeiss Standard microscope with Zeiss DIC condenser and analyser, Reichert ×16 fluorite objective, halogen illumination. Panasonic DMC GX9 camera, afocal coupling to a Leitz Vario-Orthomat variable zoom photo eyepiece, set to maximum zoom, equivalent to a ×12.5 standard eyepiece. High ISO (3200) to give a fast shutter speed allowing resolution of ciliary movement. Video post-processing including noise reduction with Serif Movie Plus X6.
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Carel Sartory
Thin section of an agate crystal
A 19th century preparation made by J. T. Norman of an agate crystal, videoed using a motor-driven rotating polariser.
The gross specimen was imaged on a photomacrographic stand using an old Olympus OM 50 mm macro lens and a 25 mm extension tube attached to an Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II mirrorless digital camera in video mode. A linear polariser screwed into the lens acted as an analyser and the specimen was illuminated with an 8 mm diameter LED ceiling down-lighter with the motor-driven linear polariser rotating above it.
The detail was imaged using a Wild M20 microscope, a ×6 Wild Plan Fluotar objective and an Olympus NFK 2.5× photo eyepiece. The Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II was mounted on the phototube of the M20, set up for Köhler illumination. A linear polarising filter was placed in the filter holder of the objective carrier (the analyser) and the rotating polariser was placed above the illumination field lens in the base of the microscope.
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Thin section of carboniferous barytes from Derbyshire
A modern preparation made by Geosec Slides of barytes, videoed using a motor-driven rotating polariser.
The gross specimen was imaged on a photomacrographic stand using an old Olympus OM 50 mm macro lens attached to an Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II mirrorless digital camera in video mode. A linear polariser screwed into the lens acted as an analyser and the specimen was illuminated with an 8 mm diameter LED ceiling down-lighter with the motor-driven linear polariser rotating above it.
The detail was imaged using a Wild M20 microscope, a ×3 Wild Plan Fluotar objective and an Olympus NFK 2.5× photo eyepiece. The Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II was mounted on the phototube of the M20, set up for Köhler illumination. A linear polarising filter was placed in the filter holder of the objective carrier (the analyser) and the rotating polariser was placed above the illumination field lens in the base of the microscope.
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Thin section of chalcedony from Cornwall – Barnard Certificate
A 19th century preparation made by J. T. Norman of chalcedony, videoed using a motor-driven rotating polariser.
The gross specimen was imaged on a photomacrographic stand using an old Olympus OM 50 mm macro lens and a 25 mm extension tube attached to an Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II mirrorless digital camera in video mode. A linear polariser screwed into the lens acted as an analyser and the specimen was illuminated with an 8 mm diameter LED ceiling down-lighter with the motor-driven linear polariser rotating above it.
The detail was imaged using a Wild M20 microscope, a ×3 Wild Plan Fluotar objective and an Olympus NFK 2.5× photo eyepiece. The Olympus OMD E-M10 mark II was mounted on the phototube of the M20, set up for Köhler illumination. A linear polarising filter was placed in the filter holder of the objective carrier (the analyser) and the rotating polariser was placed above the illumination field lens in the base of the microscope.
Charles Hussey’s comment: Chose a specimen that demonstrates the effectiveness of polarisation in a pleasing manner.
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Playing with polarisation
Carel provided this video to explain how he produced the 3 videos of rotating crystals and minerals.
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Jeffrey Silverman
Colpodid eats Colpodid – Barnard Certificate
Sample of lichen growing on a pine wood deck soaked in water yielded numerous small Colpoda species. Soon larger Colpodid ciliates appeared like this Krassniggia, voracious carnivores that prey on their smaller cousins the Colpoda. Imaged in Nomarski DIC using an Olympus BHS microscope with SPlan 20× objective plus 4× phone camera cropping on Samsung S9+ cell phone for effective magnification of 800×.
Charles Hussey’s comment: A well-filmed instance of striking behaviour.
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Sonderia asks: What’s for desert?
One would think these Sonderia Kahl, 1928 species, possibly S. vorax, would be satiated having ingested so many diatoms from the intertidal benthos of marine estuary Acabonac Harbor on Long Island, New York, but it looks like they are still hungry. These interesting ciliates are common in the sapropelic environment of salt marshes and other brackish water sites with oxygen deficiency. Imaged in phase contrast on Zeiss Photomicroscope III using Neofluar PH2 16× objective with Optovar lens set at 1.6× plus variable Samsung S9+ phone cropping up to 2× for effective magnification of 384× up to 512×.
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Jan van IJken
Polychaete worm larva at metatrochophore stage – Barnard Certificate
Living specimen imaged in darkfield using a Leica DM microscope with 10× objective and Sony A7SII camera.
Charles Hussey’s comment: Excellent orientation and editing resulting in a charming video.
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Sea sparkle (Noctiluca scintillans)
Living specimen imaged in darkfield and Differential Interference Contrast (DIC), using a Leica DM microscope with 10–63× objectives and Sony A7SII camera.
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Tube-dwelling diatoms
Living specimen imaged in darkfield using a Leica DM microscope with 10–63× objectives, filmed in time-lapse with Sony A7SII camera.
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