If you have a microscope and if you are getting bored of looking at algae and chasing paramecia, maybe you could try collecting pollen? Pollen comes in many different shapes and colors and with some practice you can learn to identify various types of plants by their pollen. Also, collecting pollen is easy – just shake a blossom over a microscope slide and you are pretty much done.
Even if there is not a single blossom in sight, you can still catch some pollen – without leaving your house. Take a piece of clear Scotch tape and attach it in such a way so part of its sticky side is exposed to the air. Leave it for several hours in the breeze and you will get plenty of pollen and other interesting stuff to look at.
One thing about pollen collected from the air is that the individual grains are often dried and shriveled. In this state it is very hard to see the actual shape of the pollen grain and identification is almost impossible. To see the real shape the pollen needs to be rehydrated. An easy way to hydrate pollen is to mix glycerine and alcohol. I’ve found that 1:1 mixture of glycerin and 50% isopropyl alcohol works just fine.
Put a drop of the glycerin/alcohol mix on a slide and carefully attach the Scotch tape over it. Stick it under the microscope, find a dry pollen grain, and start looking. After a couple of minutes you will see the grain slowly expanding. Here is a timelapse video that I’ve made of hydrating pollen:
Using a Scotch-tape-in-the-wind method you will catch not only pollen, but also trichomes, tiny scales from butterfly wings, dust mites, and of course a lot of dust. It can be a refreshing change from all these algae and paramecia…
