Well it’s still a few good weeks before the new year starts – especially for me – but we’ve properly closed the past one. The one in which I was a mentor of a great group of students and the one in which I managed to teach five different subjects. It was a hectic year. But it was also another year of lots of joy, learning, good conversations and coffee. To name a few things.
My summer break will be a bit longer this year, due to some silly rules, but this will give me a bit more time to finish a few modules for my course. We’re even going to do experiments on a working-week trip to Schiermonnikoog, one of the Dutch islands (needless to say I’m very much looking forward to this)! – Stay tuned.
But time even flies when it’s not organised in lesson plans and so I find myself writing this update after having spent some time in the hospital (!) where I lost my right thumb’s nail (yes), after a period of dull bureaucratic administration and after having spring-cleaned my flat (what are summer breaks for eh). But this wouldn’t be a message from me without a silver lining…
Which comes in the form of a few very exciting plans – some astronomy related ones again too! And I’ll show some of the fun stuff I’ve been up to in the meantime, in the next few days as well, in case you’re interested. Have a good summer, dear readers of these ramblings! Xx
Leaf stomata, 100x (Hanny van Arkel).
Here’s a picture of one of the lasts projects I’ve been working on for my course (and my job). I haven’t properly tried astrophotography (yet), so it’s not a newly discovered planet, no. This is what you see when you put a thick layer of blank nail polish on a leaf, take it off with a pair of tweezers, and put it under a microscope. It’s the leaf’s stomata, which will stick to the polish. You see most of them are closed, except the one right next to the arrow. That’s all class.
3 Comments
Oooh.. Great image of the leaf stomata, its fascinating what goes on in the microscopic world. I’ve never seen that before. You learn something new every day I guess!
Cheers Todd. Did you click on the image? You can even zoom the bigger version.
Yes, my screen was overflowing with leaf stomata! A really fab pic