Image : Building an Automated Underwater Microscope

To gather information about coastal ecosystems, WHOI biologist Heidi Sosik traditionally went out in boats, took single water samples, and preserved them to identify phytoplankton cells later in her lab. It was a painstaking process and only provided data about about one place at one time in the coastal ocean. Her new instrument, Imaging FlowCytobot, continously sends images to shore, so she can observe microscopic organisms in real time in their changing environment. (Photo courtesy of Heidi Sosik, WHOI)

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Last updated: December 10, 2012