Exploring Sperm Under the Microscope: A Guide for Beginners

[tumor]

I have preety good microscope at home and I'm wondering if it is possible to see sperm and individual guys under magnification?
How do i go about it?(first step, masturbate and then?)
Thanks for any help.

 

[doxigywlz]

you get your sperm, prepare a slide and wha-la! ... do you know how to prepare a slide?

 

[tumor]

you get your sperm, prepare a slide and wha-la! ... do you know how to prepare a slide?

Not exactly.I think I have some rectangular pieces of glass and those very thin ones too,but tell me one thing ;would I be able to see my individual guys clearly?

 

[nautica]

why must someone tell you. Prepare you slide and find out. Part of the fun is not knowing and then finding out. All of the fun is taken out of science if you know the results before the experiment is done.

nautica

 

[NoTime]

would I be able to see my individual guys clearly?

Aren't sperm haploid?
So it would be individual guys and girls.

 

[no idea]

how is the quality of your microscope??If yours have 400X, i think you can see the sperms clearly .. Actually i have seen once when i visit an university. They move very quicky

 

[tumor]

why must someone tell you. Prepare you slide and find out. Part of the fun is not knowing and then finding out. All of the fun is taken out of science if you know the results before the experiment is done.

nautica

We talking about sperm here,I'm not some kind of fountain.If I once screew preparing slide I'm going to have to wait long time to get fresh stuff.I have to be sure.
By the way NO IDEA, my microscope is made by ZEISS it has four lenses 10,45,100,1000,magnification.This mic. cost me about 3,000$Canadian ,I bought it when I was still fascinated by everything around me.

 

[aychamo]

10,45,100,1000 magnification.

GEEZ that is A LOT of magnification!

(kidding)

 

[no idea]

oh..that's great. yours even better than my school's

 

[tumor]

oh..that's great. yours even better than my school's

Yeah I know it is a beauty.But over the years my microscope just collects dust.I have no idea what to do with it except looking at sperm
Do you have any ideas?

 

[Dagenais]

why must someone tell you. Prepare you slide and find out. Part of the fun is not knowing and then finding out. All of the fun is taken out of science if you know the results before the experiment is done.

Not so. I know the results when I point my telescope up at the moon, mars, or venus. When I look at the sun through a friends scope, I have an idea of what I'm going to see, it's still fun.

Yeah I know it is a beauty.But over the years my microscope just collects dust.I have no idea what to do with it except looking at sperm
Do you have any ideas?

A lot of science stores sell slides with dead bugs on them and stuff. Ask your science teacher, he probably has tons of slides with interesting things to look at.

 

[z4955]

how much would you take for that microscope?

 

[tumor]

I bought that thing few years ago brand new from ZEISS, one of the best optics manufacturers by the way.Japanese mics.(olympus) are also very, very good.
Paid about 3000$ bucks.
Right now I'm not selling it, come later and I will give you for free.

 

[Moonbear]

Well, you should have no problem with the objectives you have available. Do any of the objectives say "oil" on them? If not, they are most likely air objectives, so nothing special needed for viewing. If they say water imm. or oil imm., then you will need a drop of oil or water on top of your coverslip that the lens will touch (make sure you clean it well when done too, especially with oil).

As for preparing your, erm, specimen...you'll have a lot to work with, so no need to worry about not having enough if you get it wrong the first time. On your slide (those are the thick rectangular glass), just put a drop or two. Touch the edge of the coverslip (the thin glass) to the edge of one drop, and then slowly lower the coverslip until it lies flat. This should spread the drop evenly under the coverslip and minimize air bubbles. Under the hot lamp of the microscope, the sperm will probably start to die off, so don't be worried if you don't see them moving as much as you were expecting.

You can use this same method to put a coverslip on anything by adding a droplet of a liquid you want to examine, or a droplet of water over something solid you want to examine. Onions are cool (get the thin membrane that's between the layers of onion). You could take a cotton swab or toothpick and rub inside your cheek to look at some epithelial cells and probably some bacteria. Or see if there's anything scary and moldy in the fridge and take a look at a smear you create from that. You need very little of any particular sample, and actually, the less the better, since thin preps will let better light through for viewing.

 

[tumor]

First; how to bake bread and now how to view MY specimens under microscope,
Thanks Moonbear, you are precious.

 

[Moonbear]

First; how to bake bread and now how to view MY specimens under microscope,
Thanks Moonbear, you are precious.

Just don't try doing both at the same time. :yuck:

 

[iansmith]

how to bake bread

You turn on the oven, place the prepared in oven pot, leave it 30-45 minutes and then remove from the oven when the crust is rock solid.

On a more serious note, you can actually buy lypholized yeast at the grocery store and you could make a suspension of the yeast to observed under the microscope.

now how to view MY specimens under microscope

First you turn on the light

Second, you have to focus and adjust and center the light. this is painful part. First to focus you have to draw a line with a wax pencil on slide. You then use the smallest objective on move the focus and the fine focu until you seen the details of wax line. The next step is to adjust the light. there should a way to move the diaphragm. So have to close the diaphragm and the light should be a small dot. Center the dot. Once you center the dot you expand the dot to the point where it just barely came out of sight.

Once this done, refocus using the slide with the wax pencil mark. Do the focusing for every objective. Once this is done you should be capable of view your specimen.

Tutorial
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/Bio111/Bio111LabMan/ILI/scopes.html

 

[Moonbear]

You turn on the oven, place the prepared in oven pot, leave it 30-45 minutes and then remove from the oven when the crust is rock solid.

On a more serious note, you can actually buy lypholized yeast at the grocery store and you could make a suspension of the yeast to observed under the microscope.

To translate that, you can use that little packet of yeast you bought in the grocery store, put it in some water, and look at a drop under the microscope! LOL! Iansmith, he's still getting basic instructions on how to prepare a wet mount, do you think he knows what lyophilized means?

Second, you have to focus and adjust and center the light. this is painful part. First to focus you have to draw a line with a wax pencil on slide. You then use the smallest objective on move the focus and the fine focu until you seen the details of wax line. The next step is to adjust the light. there should a way to move the diaphragm. So have to close the diaphragm and the light should be a small dot. Center the dot. Once you center the dot you expand the dot to the point where it just barely came out of sight.

Wow, that's more complex than any way I was ever taught to use a microscope! If you close the diaphragm and still see diffuse light, move it up until it forms a sharp circle or octagon (depending on the scope, it could be either). There might be a way to center the diaphragm too if the light is off to one side or another.

This is the problem with starting off with too fancy of a microscope, there's a lot more to adjust than with those dinky things that come with kids' science kits.

An easy way I've found to help students focus the microscope for the first time is to put your slide on, then adjust the stage all the way up (under the lowest magnification, not high power!), then slowly adjust it down while looking in the ocular (eyepiece) until the image comes into focus. Then, you can switch up to your higher power objectives, focusing with each one every time.

 

[iansmith]

LOL! Iansmith, he's still getting basic instructions on how to prepare a wet mount, do you think he knows what lyophilized means?

We never known but just in case

To Lypholyse:
to dry by freezing in a high vacuum

www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn[/URL]

[QUOTE=Moonbear] Wow, that's more complex than any way I was ever taught to use a microscope! If you close the diaphragm and still see diffuse light, move it up until it forms a sharp circle or octagon (depending on the scope, it could be either). There might be a way to center the diaphragm too if the light is off to one side or another.

This is the problem with starting off with too fancy of a microscope, there's a lot more to adjust than with those dinky things that come with kids' science kits.

An easy way I've found to help students focus the microscope for the first time is to put your slide on, then adjust the stage all the way up (under the lowest magnification, not high power!), then slowly adjust it down while looking in the ocular (eyepiece) until the image comes into focus. Then, you can switch up to your higher power objectives, focusing with each one every time.[/QUOTE]

This is what the prof told us adjust a microscope on the first class of microbio lab method in our first semester. I remember that the diaphragm was fixed on our microscope it could not be move up or down.

I forgot about raking up the stage all the way. This was also in the instruction. The only problem, you have to make sure the student know that you have to go down a this point. With a higher objective, the slide will collide with the objective. While I was TAing, I sometime heard a "oh" at this point. The student move the stage up rather than down.

 

[judoka]

Hi,
I have a light microscope, AmScope. I don't know what the magnification is, on the lense it says 4, 10, 40 and 100. The 100 one is oil immersion...
I'd like to make a sperm slide. Its kind of hard to get a specimen, first being a woman... second having everything ready to go after specimen arrives...
So I'd like some step by step instructions on how to make a sperm slide, in a language easy to understand.
1. How do you make a correct sperm smear? The technique used for blood smear doesn't really work cause that thing is kind of sticky...
2. What stain to use? I have Eosin Y (1% Aqueous Solution) and Methylene Blue Chloride (1% solution as well)
3. When and how to add stain? Do you need to air dry the sperm before staining or just mix the stain with the specimen?
4. What is the lowest magnification you need to be able to see little guys?

From the slide I just made you can't see anything and I'm assuming I'm not doing it right. Or my boyfriend has some problems and there's nothing to see. Please advise ASAP before my BF develops complex :D

Thanks.

 

[Lok]

This thred is 5 years old... maybe some of the ones that wrote it died till now :P

Sperm is not hard to get even for a woman, with or without the dirty stuff.

It really is just the same as with blood, just wait 5 minutes till the specimen begins to liquify. (sperm clogs at the moment of ejaculation to better stick to the vagina )

No ideea what chemicals to use.

And about the magnification again no ideea but the sperm size is 5x3 micrometers for the head and 30 micrometers for the flagella. A human hair has 100 so if you can see fine details of a human hair on your microscope you will easily see sperm.