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The Current Status of "The Science Jar" (TM)
Here you can enjoy the most recent looks into The Science Jar (tm) including video and photos of the microorganisms observed within. Since the time this jar was first started in the Spring of 2022 it has underwent fantastic changes as conditions within the jar have changed, additional water samples added to the jar, a grow light applied to jar, changes in the jar's temperature from room temperature, to extreme heat out in the summer sun to cold temperatures of winter as well as fertilization (eutrophication). . . the community structure and population dynamics have been enjoyable to watch over time and in light of the various disturbances the jar has endured. It has, in fact, endured. Nature has an amazing ability to rebound and recover from disturbances and environmental changes and that has been demonstrated quite clearly within this little cosmos. You can see the history of the status of the jar for the whole year of 2023 here: Year 2023 Status of the Jar |
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Earth Fair 2024, April 26th and April 27th! On April 26th and 27th The Science Jar (TM) was at the Earth Fair at Goodells County Park for the second year in a row. Last year it was absolutely freezing; this year the first day was chilly but the real issue was the wind! The Science Jar's spot is right near one of the barn doors and that played havoc on the display photos as well as the drops of water on the slides making it difficult to see things at times. The second day started off with some rain but then cleared up into a perfect and mild day. It is always satisfying to hear the "eiwwwwww"s and "cooool"s and "see that's why you don't drink the water when you swim!"s when displaying the variety of freshwater microorganisms that can be enjoyed in a drop of water from a pond, lake, stream, marsh or wherever. I didn't think of it until late in the day during the first day, but started taking a poll or votes as to what team viewers were on: "Cool!" "Gross" or "Both" and then on the second day added "Abstain/IDK." Surely not a rigorous poll but the numbers over the two days were as follows: Total Votes: 114: COOL: 73! BOTH: 22! Gross!: 15! And Abstain/IDK: 4. Therefore, across the population of the world, it appears from this study that 64% will think that the microorganisms and such are COOL!! hahahaha Did I exaggerate? Anyway, During the interactive exhibit on the live view of slides students and parents got to see 1st hand: Ostracods (those are very prevalent in the jar right now), Nematodes, A Rotifer, as well as a Cyclops as well as a Dragonfly Larva/Nymph (not sure that’s not my focus, but the ladies of The Health Department who had an exhibit next to mine, agreed that that's what it was and they put one of them I was able to catch under their Stereo Microscope for people to see. I ended up catching a second one and looked at it under my microscope with spectators; however, given its size only small portions of it could be viewed at a time. . . The cyclops and dragonfly nymph were actually not from the Science Jar (yet) because I had collected a little water from a ditch/pond on the way to day two of the event; the water from that sampling was added to The Science Jar after the event. Now after the two day adventure disturbance of the jar (because of being shaken in the car ride there and back it is back in its location and returned to having grow light and heater applied to it; I did not re-start the aeration to let it calm down a bit from all that disturbance. Definitely looking forward to returning to Earth Fair next year! See you there? In the video below you can see what was seen in stills and some video as well of Nematodes, Ostracods and Cyclops! (and more) 1 April 2024. Look Into The Science Jar.. I took two samplings. One sample I took from various parts of the jar and spun down at 1,500rpm for a couple minutes. The second sampling I took from the sides and around the duckweed and just dropped it on the slide. I did not use any methylcellulose in this look. There were plenty of nematodes! The video starts with video clips of nematodes doing nematodes doing nematode things. Don't you wonder what music they are hearing? Some serious dance moves they have going on! There is an amoeba in there as well; I sped that video clip up 500%. At the end part of the recap you will see some pretty good video of a Rotifer with its feet anchored on the slide (allowing it to stay in place) while it uses its cilia wheeling around to draw particles toward it's mouth opening. You can see the particles moving toward it and around each side of it in a vortex. At the very end of the video you will see a different species of rotifer grazing around eating. There has been a great deal of evaporation from the jar due to the heater and aerator. They continue to run 24/7 as does the grow light. I will be adding water samplings from somewhere to it very soon. I have also been occassionally / randomly adding a pinch of flake fishfood (ground up between fingers). |
17 March 2024. Look Into The Science Jar. It has been a while since I have taken a look into the jar. However, it has been since the beginning of the year under 24/7 grow light and also has had the heater applied along with aeration. The temperature is kept in the low 70s given its location on an unheated florida room the aquarium heater can only do so much and that is about where it is kept in terms of temperature. Additionally, through my research on Ostracods (currently reading a LOT of scholarly research articles on them. . I have two binders of research articles I am working my way through and I am currently about 1/3 of the way into the second one of them) I learned that some scientists in their maintaining of similar jars (albeit dedicated to ostracods) have fed them TetraMin fish flake food. So this year I have started doing that. Taking a pinch of the flakes and grinding them up between my fingers to make it as fine a dust and particles as possible and putting a pinch or two in the jar periodically. I admit I am not very regular about doing as I should be if this were a scientifically rigorous project (which it is not by any stretch of the imagination). Since undertaking the adding of the TetraMin Flaks, this is the first sampling. And I can really tell the diference. I know that Ostracods can grow up into the milimeters as far as size. All times prior to this the Ostracods in my jar have been small. Now, they are noticably larger. Some of them taking up the full view at the lowest power. The water in the jar is clear to the bottom and there is some healthy duckweed growing on the surface of the water. Because of the heat and aeration there has been a lot of evaporation and so I need to go collect and add some water to the jar soon. That is this week's mission if the weather will cooperate a bit. The reason the water in the jar is so clear is because also found in there at this point are a great many water fleas (Daphnia and I think Bosmina as well). I am not expert on them as far as differentiating so I'm not going to say definitively; but I think both are in there. I don't think anyone will strongly object to me lumping them together into the water flea category. I just took one sampling from the jar from various parts of the jar and spun down the 12ml sampling in the cetrifuge at 1,500 rpm for a few minutes. I only took one pippetted sampling from the bottom of the centrifuge tube to look at. In addition to the large abundance of ostracods and water fleas there were only a few rotifers in there. No appreciable numbers of diatoms, no vorticella, no sun animalcules, no nematodes observed either in that sampling. I think you will enjoy the video clips of the ostracods and water fleas and the brief appearance of a rotifer. I did add methyl cellulose (ProtoSlo) to the slide which helped to get some great video. Otherwise the water fleas move so quickly it is sometimes hard to chase them around when they are on the move. Hope you enjoy! |