# Mice hair under microscope *PICS*



## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

We were fiddling about with microscopes in Microbiology & Biochemistry a few weeks ago, when i remembered reading something about a year ago about satin mouse hairs being hollow. I asked my tutor if i could bring some samples in to have a look at them, and she said yes. FINALLY she found time at the end of a lesson to watch what i was doing (she's very protective over equipment) and i looked at samples!

I brought in clippings of longhaird, satin and standard coats. I found it very interesting! 
My friend asked the lab tech if she had a microscope with a camera on it, and she said yes. Today i got a few pics in, and would love to share it with you!

Sadly i only have one picture for now, as the other pics she sent me were in some strange file, so i'm trying to get her to reformat them some how.

But this pic is of a longhaired mouse (i think it has lice eggs on it). And just before you start to question if it would hatch out on the slide, these mice were dead and in my freezer for a few months before the hair was cut off


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

That is fascinating!

Do you have a pic of the satin hair? I know it's hollow (or partially hollow) so I wonder what that looks like.


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## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

she sent me a picture of all three, but this is the only one in Jpg, the rest were in sfc which my computer can't read ):
it's amazing how differnt the hair structures are though! i'l def upload pictures when i get them though! if no then i'll draw an extremely detailed picture of it .
The only problem with zooming in too much, is that you need to fine tune the stand up and down to get a 3D effect of the hollowness ): i'll ask if the camera has a recording option!


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## Matt Haslam (Mar 13, 2010)

email me them and i'll send the jpeg back to you


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## Toast (Nov 11, 2009)

Very interesting!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

How nice.
:| 
(ugh)


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## Jemma (Mar 11, 2010)

I don't get to play with microscopes so it's pretty interesting, to me. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences between the different coat types - thanks for sharing, Meg!


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## jo65 (Sep 22, 2009)

I love anything like this so any more pics would be great for comparisons of different hair types. The ones shown look like thin but compact coils - they don't appear to be block solid.


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## WoodWitch (Oct 18, 2009)

I am enjoying this thread too Megs, good call on posting 
I go to a Biology night class.
Love to see the other pics if you can manage it.

xx


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## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

Yeah, well i'll try and get pics of coloured hair and see if it looks different. I have 2 grown out blonde strips in my hair just behind my ears, and i compared the contrast between blonde and brown, and you could see it, so i'm thinking doing something similar for mouse hairs. If anyone has any frizzy/curly mouse hair you'd like to see under a microscope, or just anything, if you send it to me then i'd be happy to get pics of it if i can 

Thank you all for the nice comments  I though you lot would like it haha

Megs x


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## Matt Haslam (Mar 13, 2010)

here are the attached jpegs


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## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

Thank you very much matt!

Just so everyone knows, the top picture is a satin hair, and the rest are longhaired.
I thought she would've taken a clearer picture like i asked her to, but apparently not haha
Hope you find these just as interesting :lol:


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Depending on the type and resolution of the microscope, you should be able to see all the fine structure down to the molecular level. If you want to see where the colors come from, you need to look at the follicle, which would mean harvesting the hairs immediately after death, or before death (though I wouldn't recommend it that second option *ouchies*)


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