Microscopic Decomposition With Polarzed Light

This video was recorded with a Canon T1i camera tethered to my PC and using EOS Utility to control the process.

The microscope is a Nikon Fluophot set up for Brightfield and with a linear polarizer on the light source and an analyzer above the objective turret. Most of the recording was done using a Nikon 40x Plan Achromat objective lens, with changes through a 20x Plan Apo and then a 10x Plan Achromat lens for a different view.

The little lights are parts of the dead plant cells decomposing. I don't know much more about it, other than to say that this is not unique. I have seen it a number of other times, but did not have the camera to record such low light conditions.

Some stills, but you really should watch the video, cause the lights twinkle with movement.

1. This is about 200x. Think of one of those leaves that the worms have eaten everything but the veins between the cells. Pretty much the same thing here but on a much smaller scale. The lights are whats left of the cell organelles, activated by the polarized light.

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wow, that's something else.

Thanks Rick. Yes, it's quite fascinating to watch.

cool series, Mitch

Wow Mitch, these are really interesting, love all the different colors.

Thanks Dean and Sharon. I don't know much about the polarization process, other than it's usually minerals or metallics that make light, and usually only in a white or silver color. I have no idea where the colors come from. Also, these lights seem to be alive, possibly other microbes feeding on whats left of the plant materials. This would cause the twinkling in the video.

In the stills above, the lights appear to be in clumps behind some sort of mesh, chickenwire screen, but actually, each clump of light is on the same plain as the mesh surrounding it, not behind or in front of it.

interesting pattern...

Thanks for looking Rakesh. I have since found out that the little lights are birefringent bacteria that the polarizer causes to light up like that. Different angles of the light make it turn the different colors. I learn something new all the time with this hobby.