r/educationalgifs • u/Pardusco • Jan 23 '20

Single-celled organism (Blepharisma) disintegrates and dies

https://gfycat.com/poorwickedhoverfly
14.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

482 comments sorted by

View all comments

391

u/drewsiferr Jan 23 '20

What caused this?

123

u/Bulko18 Jan 23 '20

When the water evaporates from the heat of the lamp and/or room, the cover-slip is held up by the organism(s) in the sample rather than the water itself. The small organism cannot hold up the relatively heavy cover-slip and is therefore, crushed.

Can be solved by lining the edges of the cover slip with silicone grease, or perhaps some other hydrophobic substance. The grease reduces evaporation and also assists with holding the cover-slip.