Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight bacterial infections. Used properly, antibiotics can save lives. They either kill bacteria or keep them from reproducing. Your body’s natural defences can usually take it from there. But have you ever wondered about how they would look underneath a microscope? Of course your question at the time taking that antibiotics would have been “will it cure or my infection?”
There are a large number of antibiotics available and each antibiotic is effective for only certain types of infections. So its important too choose an antibiotic based on the most likely cause of the infection.
Like the introduction stated, almost everyone is familiar or has taken antibiotics in there life. So you also know it is essential to finish taking a prescribed course of antibiotics, even if you feel better, unless a healthcare professional tells you otherwise. If you stop taking an antibiotic part way through a course, the bacteria can become resistant to the antibiotic.
So how to get acces to these prescription medicine?
Well I was lucky, a few months ago I received an envelope with someone Ciprofloxacin antibiotics, with a written support letter. The doctor advised to stop the prescribed course of antibiotics, so in stead of ending in the trash, they ended underneath my microscope. Thanks to the “anonymous” supporter I got the opportunity to have a look at a new category of medicine on a microscopical level.
The First results Since I had only had only one type of antibiotic at my disposal, I started to experiment with this first one, and I got lucky quite soon. Below you can find a beautiful micrograph of Ciprofloxacin.
Ciprofloxacin crystals after waiting for 9 hours, made visible by using a cross polarised light microscope.
Ciprofloxacin crystals after waiting for 9 hours, made visible by using a cross polarised light microscope. (100% zoom of above image)
Hopefully I will recieve more different kinds of antibiotics (that are not due date) from other donators in the future. By receiving more different kinds of antibiotics, I hope to give you and others a continues flow of new micrographs (images trough a microscope) to show you its powerfull and beautiful healing crystals.
#micrograph #photography #art #science #microscope #education #technology