Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter has collected water samples and viewed them under a microscope. She is now trying to identify the organisms. Is there a website or book that someone could recommend to help in the identification? There are many websites with information, but I am not sure if they are very accurate.

Also I wonder if it Is possible to see bacteria at 1000x magnification. She saw many tiny round clear organisms moving around in a vibration like way, and I was wondering if those could be bacteria.

Thank you,
Hope

Hello Hope,

For finding the organisms under the water sample, I have found a website here:

https://microscope-microscope.org/pond- ... oan-guide/

I hope it helps!

Also, since bacteria are very small compared to other cells, most of them can only be seen at 1000x, so there is a high chance that what your daughter is seeing is bacteria. I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Noora Khattab

Hello!

A trick to help you identify the bacteria is to identify the different shapes of bacteria as this is easier than identifying the species at first glance. This will help you narrow down the types of bacteria you see to better identify the species using solely a microscope (instead of DNA analysis/taxonomic identification). If you choose to focus on one type of micro organism, I would suggest going into more depth, but if you stick to identifying all of the organisms, I would suggest to keep your identifications more general.

Here's a link to a website that will help you identify the different organisms in the water sample:
https://www.microscopemaster.com/pond-w ... scope.html

Here's a link to the different shapes of bacteria you may see:
https://www.bioexplorer.net/bacteria-shapes.html/

There are hundreds of species of mircoorgranisms present in a water sample, so try to stick to identifying just the type of organism rather than the species of every single one. Such as, identify the organisms you see as protists instead of Rhodophyta, a species of protist, as many different species can be present in a sample.

Hope this helps!
-cnoonan180

This is a good investment in self-education and long-term growth