I scanned a piece of a dried leaf that I picked up from my dying houseplant. At x20 magnitude, we are able to see veiny look of the leaf as well as small openings on the surface. I learned from Donna that these openings are called ‘stomata.’ A stoma is like a pore that facilitates gas exchange for plants. At x2,300 mag, we are able to see it more clearly — a few different cells act as “doors” to control the open and close of the “pore.”
Donna said that the SEM that we used is around fifteen years old. The combo of the analog and digital interfaces made it seem like a highly functioning piece of historical artifact. Navigating it also felt like remotely controlling a robot in another planet.
Due to my complete lack of knowledge in biology, I definitely did not expect to see the stoma and the even smaller cells. I did expect magical, unfamiliar patterns, but I didn’t know that this act of ‘seeing’ would lead to a more visceral understanding of the underlying structures, actions, and ‘stories’ of life. Now I can better understand what Robert Hooke might have felt when he saw those cells under his hand-crafted microscope.
Below: stereo pair
