Thank you to all those who have funded my quest to raise money for microscopic equipment. I completed the marathon yesterday, which was very tough, but fantastic. It is amazing how quickly you forget the pain ;-) There is still time to donate, so don't leave it too late, even a few £s helps this cause ;-)

Here is another pic taken from my microscope today. Aphids on a leaf. Look closely - there is a weird baloon-shaped one. This one looks like this because it has the larva of a parasitic wasp inside. The aphid is still alive despite the larva taking up most of its insides! One reason for not spraying pesticides is to encourage these parasitic wasps to control aphids naturally.

Suffer from hay-fever? These tablet-shaped objects are individual grains of bluebell pollen as seen under a microscope 400x actual size. I took the photo (not brilliant) yesterday. Hay-fever surfers can thank pollen grains (the plant's equivalent to sperm) trying to grow up your noise! It happens to everybody, but some are susceptible to the chemicals produced by certain pollen. Each plant has a unique pollen grain. As a result, they are used by forensic scientists to determine lots of information.