Getting to use the electron scanning microscope was such a cool experience. I chose to scan some of my favorite tea (Bigelow Constant Comment, a very common spiced black tea), thinking there would be a lot of different types of things mixed together. Well, maybe the components were too well mixed together, or maybe only the same kind of component stuck to the tape, but it all looked more homogenous than I expected. Here are some familiar views that I captured (20x and 27x zoom, respectively):
I believe the big chunk may be a piece of orange peel, with the rest being standard “tea leaves.” I couldn’t decide what to zoom in on, so I did a few different unfamiliar views. The first is of that hole in the largest chunk:
I took several pictures of this from different angles, making two of them into this 3D image:
The second unfamiliar view is of a trichome (a little hair that helps leaves retain moisture) on one of the smallest tea leaves:
Which I made into this 3D image:
I think this trichome looks delightfully creepy. However, I took a look at both of the 3D pictures I made with red/blue glasses, and didn’t find either of them very successful. There just isn’t much depth, and some parts don’t look in focus anymore. Perhaps it’s the angles I chose, but if anyone can see where I went wrong and how I might fix it, I’d love suggestions.
Finally, I took one more unfamiliar view at about the highest zoom I could get before losing all clarity (15000x). It doesn’t look like much, so I didn’t do a 3D image of this one, but it certainly is unfamiliar. Maybe the added surface area that the roughness provides somehow helps it diffuse its flavor into the water more?
