Invisible Life
This site is an exhibition of the different creatures that can be found in a drop of pond water. This is a hidden world that very few people have the chance to explore, yet it is a very rewarding experience. Most of the microscopic life in pond water are organisms that have been on the Earth for millions of years and some have been on Earth for more than a billion years. These are the first forms of life to be found on Earth and will most likely be here for many eons after man is gone from this planet.
A Sense of Scale
The common form of measurement in light microscopy is a micron. A human hair is about 100 microns wide. Details as small as a fraction of a micron can be observed through a good light microscope.
Most creatures found in pond water consist of a single cell. They are called protists or protozoa. Most of the "plants" seen in pond water are also single-celled protists called algae.Step this way, please
The first link below will take you through a gallery of just a few of the many thousands of organisms that are visible in ordinary pond water. All of these photos were taken in 2001 and 2002 using a Lomo Biolam compound microscope and an Olympus D-460 zoom 1.3 megapixel digital camera. The second link is to videos made in 2008 with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3 camera with the Lomo Biolam.