Most of the images are at 100x magnification.
|
The Air We Breathe: Particulates in air |
Most of the images are at 100x magnification. |
| Look for your element code name to find your sample images. If I didn't include images from your sample, then I didn't find any particles of interest. |
| Americium/Erbium (CGCC) Home sample: Plant material is usually green but this one is somewhat clear. These tan colored small grains of sand seem to be found in several samples. |
|
|
| Americium/Erbium (CGCC) Car sample: The soot particle can be from cigarette ashes or diesel smoke. |
|
| Antimony (CGCC) Home sample: Two images of the same flake. One is lit from below and the other above. |
|
| Antimony (CGCC) Car sample: |
|
| Californium (CGCC) Home sample: Flakes of skin or dandruff are partially clear. The soot particles are black with somewhat rounded edges. |
|
| Californium (CGCC) Car sample: We see another soot particle. All samples have small clear particles. I suspect they are very small particles of sand, which probably comprises most of the dust around us, especially here in the desert. |
|
| Carbon (PC) Home sample: Dandruff and bits of skin are common in the air. The reddish color in the dander is from using a fluorescent bulb that had a redder spectrum than the built-in fluorescent bulb. Here's another soot particle, but it's larger size indicates it is cigarette ash. |
|
| Carbon (PC) Car sample: Below are pieces of plant material. They could be pieces of unburnt tobacco. The microscope normally has light that comes up from under the sample (back lit). Here I used another light from the top to bring out its color. |
|
| Cobalt (CGCC) Home sample: On the left is an unusual flake. This is where chemical analysis would be useful. On the right is a nice picture of a bundle of fibers (most likely plant fibers). |
|
| Cobalt (CGCC) Car sample: The green color in the left particle implies the presence of chlorophyll meaning plant material. |
|
| Copper (PC) Home sample: This particle was brownish and semi-transparent. I'm not sure what it is. Here again a chemical analysis would be needed to identify it. |
|
| Copper (PC) Car sample: The "unknown" particle is probably dander. The bottom particle has stacks of cells, but not sure what it is. |
|
| Gold, Boron, Berkelium (CGCC) Home sample: Dander (pieces of skin) was found plus a blue dyed cotton fiber (could be from jeans). |
|
| Gold, Boron, Berkelium (CGCC) Car sample: A twisted blue dyed fiber was found. It is hard to tell if natural or synthetic because it is deformed. |
|
| Hafnium (PC) Home sample: Two fibers were found. One had turquoise pigments clinging to it. The right one is hair or fur. |
|
| Hafnium (PC) Car sample: |
|
| Helium (CGCC) Home sample: Bottom and top lighting was used here. |
|
| Helium (CGCC) Car sample: |
|
| Lawrencium (CGCC) Home sample: Below is dander caught in the cotton fibers used in the filter. |
|
| Lawrencium (CGCC) Car sample: Several particles were found in the car sample. |
|
| Lithium (PC) Home sample: |
|
| Lithium (PC) Car sample: The unknown particle is probably man-made. |
|
| Magnesium (CGCC) Home sample: The gold color on the synthetic fiber was from a fluorescent top light and not part of the fiber itself. The left piece could be part of an insect wing. |
|
| Magnesium (CGCC) Car sample: Top and bottom lighting of the same plant material particle is shown. |
|
| Nobelium (PC) Home sample: These small dust particles (probably small pieces of sand) were found in all samples from students. |
|
| Nobelium (PC) Car sample: The dander on the right might be a piece of plant material because of some greenish tint to it. the left is probably a dandruff flake but rolled up. |
|
| Osmium (CGCC) Home sample: |
|
| Osmium (CGCC) Car sample: |
|
| Rhodium (CGCC) Home sample: Cotton fiber is like a twisted ribbon. |
|
| Rhodium (CGCC) Car sample: |
|
| Sodium (CGCC) Home sample: Two images of the same particle. |
|
| Sodium (CGCC) Car sample: At the bottom looks like a red bundle of fibers. It might be something else. |
|
| Steel (CGCC) Home sample: |
|
| Steel (CGCC) Car sample: |
|
| Sulfur (CGCC) Home sample: Here's another goldish grain of sand. It may be something else, but looked like polished mineral. Blue dyed cotton seems to be common. Probably because blue-jeans are common. |
|
| Sulfur (CGCC) Car sample: Synthetic fiber is usually smooth. |
|
| Technetium (CGCC) Home sample: The left chip looks strange. There seems to be miniature paw prints on it. |
|
| Technetium (CGCC) Car sample: Here you can see the cell walls of many dead cells from this dandruff. |
|