Electron Microscope Pictures

[davelin315]

It's been awhile since I've been active on any online communities but the perfect opportunity to interact again with you guys just came up.

The museum that I run was just loaned an electron microscope so needless to say I took the opportunity to take some pictures of some things I have in my tank room. If you remember I did an octopus dissection when the Asian Food Market octopuses I bought died and I saved a beak from one of these dissections. Given its size and the fact that it's a 3 dimensional object, getting a nice close up has never been easy but I was able to throw it under the electron microscope last night. Here's the images I collected of just the tip of the beak (top half). Magnification is located in the bottom right of the picture.

Octopus Beak

 

[tonmo]

Hey @davelin315 - welcome back!

wow! That's some powerful stuff!!

 

[cuttlegirl]

Wow, jealous that you have such a cool tool at your disposal... I would have much fun sticking things in the microscope, it's been years since I got to play with one... How long is the loan?

Baby cuttlebones are really cool under SEM, if you need any suggestions...

 

[davelin315]

2 weeks, trying to find things to look at is harder than it sounds!

 

[DWhatley]

Interesting that there is a ridge where the sharp part of the beak grows out of the rounded part. It would be interesting to compare it with a very young animal's beak to see the wear and tear.

NIce to see your face here again!

 

[davelin315]

When you look at it with the naked eye it looks pretty sharp. Didn't think about the wear and tear (and don't have any of these available).

Good to be on, haven't had time to do much of anything since we hosted MACNA and my new job but hopefully will be more active again as we are putting marine aquariums into my facility. Would love to get my hands on a larger octopus species that would live longer and add it here but that's most likely not going to happen as we don't really have that capacity.

 

[Jean]

Nice to see and yes I agree about the wear and tear.......if you get another chance looking at the growth lines in the wings might be useful and fun!