Fungal Spores are Everywhere!!!

Bob Ross would be very happy about this happy little accident.

Jul 16, 2024

I am glad that I made myself do the slide cleaning experiments the other day, not just because I learned more about cleaning slides but that it highlighted that despite meticulous cleaning with proper chemicals and materials there is still a chance for materials to be left behind and cause anomalies in the samples prepared subsequent to cleaning. I know this is an obvious thing to state, but it needs to be stated, repeated and remembered all the time.

The single strand of cotton wool in one of the cleaning steps really did look like it had a dragon’s head, horn and all. This was just the one that I found at the time of checking the state of cleanliness of the slide. I am almost certain that other contaminants I just didn’t scan for would have been found if I had been more thorough, but really, as I’ve stated before, I’m working in a home environment, not a laboratory.

The exercise was really about identifying potential artefacts and contamination that can occur simply from cleaning a slide without actually placing a sample for examination under the cover slip. If I spot something in a sample and give it a scary name, I’d better have good reason to do so. I think it’s okay to embellish one’s writing to make it more interesting, but I also think that the embellishment should be put into the proper context and kept separate from any facts that are being conveyed within the same presentation.

I haven’t seen a dragon, unicorn, devil, microscopic nano-robot, bot, chip or anything else constructing itself in anything I can call self-assembly or even at all. Yes, I have seen some very strange things even in the few samples I’ve examined so far, things which I believe shouldn’t be where they are seen to be, inside bodily fluids and natural water sources.

I have to be decisively objective and honest about what I’m seeing. I think I could easily get sucked into the mistake of over stating what I see. While it’s not boring to me to write about this serious and important issue, I think about who might consider reading what I write, a little banter and embellishment can ease that dull mono-scientific hum drum of facts and numbers to add a bit of spice just to make for some entertaining reading. All science and no speculation make David a Dull old fart. Entertainment is great, we could all use a big laugh. Laugh at me, I don’t mind. Laughter is medicine for the soul, but it should never be at the expense of misinforming or misleading one’s readers; that is just not right, nor should it be taken lightly.

By seemingly criticising naming conventions of the anomalies we are seeing, some readers might think I’m pointing fingers at other microscopists and the work they are doing or, maybe that I’m even trying to undermine what others are writing about. That is most certainly not my intention, it is not why I am writing in the manner that I am writing. My intention is to be clear about what I see through the microscope, in samples that I am examining in order to determine for myself if any potential contamination exist in air, food, medicine and water supplies, in and around the area where I live, whether that be chemical pollution of the air and land from solar radiation management (SRM) programs (aka chemtrails), nanotechnology released accidentally or intentionally into water courses or into food chains through vaccines, pesticides, fertilizers, livestock feed, or whatever else you can think that could affect or natural condition of good health and then share that information, right or wrong for consideration or correction.

If I do manage to find any such nefariously, or unintentionally dispersed chemicals, or technology then I ought to begin to try and discover the source. It doesn’t suit my purpose to simply say, oh look I found a nanobot self-assembling out of hydrogel and leave a trail of scared readers. If there is a real threat, I have to know it and act accordingly. Not just say look that looks like this or that and leave it at that!

I simply do not know at this time if nanobots or tech are in our essential human material needs or not. I think they probably are, but I’m not 100% convinced. So, please forgive me my current scepticism. It’s not reasonable to expect anyone to know everything about the whole potential nanotech threat, I certainly don’t and it’s not my place to point fingers at anyone who might have seen things I have not. At the same time, I realise there are people who have been researching this stuff for many, many years, their experience is obviously valuable and I am sure that referring to their work and gained knowledge of their experience, will help to guide my own investigations and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me so far, I do appreciate that help.

As I enter this fascinatingly bizarre world of the microcosm and yet rather disturbing field of investigation, I sincerely hope that my work in it will be of benefit to not just my family and friends, but to anyone who takes the time to read and see what I am seeing and describing under the microscope.

If I see a real ‘NanoGoblin’, I will say “I saw a NanoGoblin’, categorically and show you a picture or video of a ‘NanoGoblin’, if I can. If I only think something looks like ‘NanoGoblin’, or it could be a ‘NanoGoblin’ whatever a ‘NanoGoblin’ might look like, I’ll say that I am not sure if it is a ‘NanoGoblin’ and say what I think it could be based on my observation. Are you impressed with how many times I squeezed ‘NanoGoblin into that paragraph? Hmm, thought not!

I think I strayed away from what I wanted to actually talk about, but I feel like it needed to be said. Now, let’s get looking for NanoGoblins!!!

Distilled H₂O on Acetone (C₃H₆O) cleaned slide and cover slip.

The day after the slide cleaning experiments, I had left the slide on the microscope stage for almost a whole day, all covered up with a plastic shopping bag, as I don’t have a proper microscope cover – yet! I first wanted to take a couple of snap shots of the area captured with time lapse the night before. I think I said that already, I wanted to check that there really were no obvious signs of difference in the crystal formations, at least not in that particular area.

Pics of 24 hrs post time lapse video.

Being a bit disappointed I decided to have a look around, remembering what one of the citizen microscopists here on Substack mentioned; that the edges of cover slips make for good areas to investigate. I assume this is because they are prone to evaporation and have contact with a fresh supply of oxygen to assist in the formations through crystallisation and or perhaps oxidation, that’s just a hunch at this point.

I’m glad I did, because I found an incredible fern-like, branching structure. At first, it reminded me of frost, but then really it was more like seaweed or a fungal outreaching growth. Not at all what I was expecting. Whilst I played with the focus, darkfield filter holder, iris position and condenser elevation, trying to tease out some detail and to try and get an idea of the dimensional form, by that I mean just how three dimensional was it.

The sense that I get from the assumed crystal form was that its growth started on the top of the glass slide and extended upward and outward like a dandelion plant’s leaves to the underside of the cover slip. When I switched to an oblique/darkfield combination, the tips of the fronds glowed up orange, yellow and white, depending on the refraction caused by filter and iris misalignment and quite beautifully so.

I had been wondering about crystals forming on the underside of the cover-slip as opposed to the top of the slide itself when looking at previous samples I prepared. Why were crystals forming on the underside of the cover slip? I wondered if it might be the cold surface of the cover slip causing a temperature change of the warm bodily fluids that I had looked at. But this distilled water was at room temperature, the same as the cover slip! Perhaps this upward growth from slide to slip through the evaporating liquid, in this case distilled water, formed at some time after evaporation and then being exposure to the air at the edges of the slip!

Then it suddenly occurred to me, I had used acetone to clean the slide and slip and only added distilled water as the subject sample. Acetone completely evaporates very quickly and so should leave I assumed, no real traces of any elements. After a quick internet check, acetone in fact does completely evaporate leaving no trace of itself on the glass slide or cover slip.

To me that means one of two possible sources of elemental or chemical compound could be the cause. One which I’ve mentioned, the air in the room, then secondly and expandingly so, any dust particles coming to rest at the edge of the cover-slip before evaporation took place, effectively pulling in the elements of the air and any compounds, dusts mould spores or co2 from my breath etc or/and residue left from the tap water, fairly liquid, alcohol wipes, KimWipes and or cotton wool. Did I miss some possible contamination.

So again, even thinking I had a clean slide, I obviously did not. A Beautiful error however as the crystal forms observed were out of this world through the microscope. With that, below, I’ll offer you some stills captured in between the capturing of the crudely stitched together video clips above.

Now, I’m going to have another look at the same slide again, to see what else can come about from such a happy accident in true Bob Ross style…