Spicy Surprise

Bugs usually don't bother me unless they are in my food. I found a couple critters crawling around my cupboard last night and traced it back to a whole colony in the paprika I brought back from a trip last year. Disposal of the colony was quick, except 1 bug. I decided to bring one to work and take a look at it in the Cytation 5 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader.

The bug was placed in a clear 24 well costar plate and onto the carrier. Manual mode was launched and the 4x objective was selected. Texas Red seemed like a good wavelength to start with since it was living in the red paprika. The bug was mobile in the bottom of the well so I connected the joystick and began to play "catch the bug" with much ease. After a little practice with the joystick focus I managed to get an image of my former house visitor. A sharp focus was not obtained on the 1 mm thick sample using the 4x objective, but the image gave me a good idea of what my unwanted visitor looked like up close.

What’s in your spice?



By: BioTek Instruments, Kevin Myers, Service Product Manager