Day 7

October 12, 2011

Earlier in the day, the mentor added particles to cells for us to use when we arrived. Once we came, we took the cells and brought them to lab on the floor below our lab. He placed the cells under a fluorescent microscope. It took him about an hour to have the perfect focus and angle. When it was all set up, we were able to see the different shaped cells. We first saw the sphere cells. Those looked smaller than any of the other ones. They were about 50nm each. Then we saw rod cells. Those were a little more rotund but also a little longer which were about 150nm each. The last kind that we saw were the worm cells. Those were about the same width as the rods but were even longer, and they were 250nm long. In order for us to be able to see the particles under the microscope, particular molecules had to be attached to them. These molecules allowed the particles to show up under a red fluorescent light. There are different colored lights for different molecules. There are particular molecules that let particles show up under either green or blue fluorescent lights. After we looked at the particles, we headed back upstairs. Then, JM printed out a sheet for us that showed us the different shapes of the particles at an even closer look. This was pretty much all that we did today.