We’re used to seeing amazing microscopic sea life in lab microscopes. In the video above we finally get to see what they look like in their own habitat, thanks to a cool new underwater microscope. The device was developed at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC–San Diego for use in the ocean’s benthic zone. Divers have already used the BUM (“Benthic Underwater Microscope”) to observe coral turf wars and polyp “kissing.”
The first-of-its-kind microscope has two parts: a computer with a diver-friendly interface, and a microscopic imaging unit. It sports an electronically tunable high-magnification lens, a ring of LED lights for fast shutter speeds, and fluorescence imaging. “The system is capable of seeing features as small as single cells underwater,” according to one of its designers, Ph.D. student Andrew Mullen.
This is a big deal. In the past, when organisms had to be captured for observation in a laboratory setting, scientists couldn’t see them in context. As such, they were never able to see what they really do and how they naturally behave. The BUM changes all that.
