BIO 349
Lab Report #1 Microscopy and Staining
Abstract The primary focus of this lab was on microscopy and simple stains. Microscopy that was used were magnification, slide preparation, and staining. Methylene blue, a simple staining component, was used to stain the slide in order to see the different microbes and determine their cellular shape.
Introduction The purpose of this lab was to become familiar with the light microscope and how to accurately use it to view specimens. The staining method was used to observe different cellular shapes. The exercises preformed using the light microscope were: magnification, slide preparation, and staining. The stain used in this lab was methylene blue, a common simple stain. The different types of specimens used experiment include: A letter E as a specimen slide and a sample of bacteria scraped from the inside of a individuals mouth by using a toothpick. A hypotheses arose during this experiment pertaining to the bacteria sample. Such as, the bacteria will be round in shape and the nuclease if any, will be a different color blue than the rest of the bacteria because the amount of protein indicated in the nuclease will be stronger therefore hold a darker color.
Materials and Methods (Please refer to packet for materials and methods listed under 1.1,1.2,1.3 exercises)
Results
Exercise 1.1 (a) the letter E was used as the specimen slide. The letter E was visible at magnification 4X with 5mm field of view, 10X with 2mm field of view and 40X with no field of view. Exercise 1.2 was to measure the letter E with ocular and stage measurements.
Exercise 1.3 A sample of bacteria swabbed from the inside of the mouth with a toothpick was used and stained with methylene blue. The bacteria was clustered in shape with two different shades of blue, nuclease being the darker color.
Figure 1 (exercise 1.1)
Figure 1 is the letter E specimen: (please refer to