Recently, my wife and children rescued tadpoles from a tire rut filled with rainwater. This vernal habitat has long since dried up, but 40+ tadpoles are thriving in our home. One of them wasn't looking so well so we removed him(?) from the tank. This prompted us to observe him in a little glass saucer with the 20-4ox power microscope we had gotten for homeschooling years ago.
First we looked at his eyes. I called my wife, the kids, and their friends who were visiting and they all lined up to look through the eyepiece. After many "oohs" and "aahs", I focused on the tail. There, in the transparent part of the tail that surrounds the spinal column, one could see individual blood cells traveling out along arterioles to the tail margin, then back through venules to the main vessels. This poor tadpole obviously wasn't moving much at this point, but his circulatory system was well enough for us to get an excellent view of the wonders of creation.
These same amazingly complex microscopic processes are going on throughout our body 24 hours per day, every day for decades. Unfortunately, we seldom recognize the beauty of biology until something stops working correctly. Mysteries still far outweigh our knowledge when it comes to life, but ever since veterinary school I've felt priveleged to be in a profession that allows me to care for patients within the bounds of that knowledge. (Sometimes that means just not interfering with the body's ability to heal.)
First we looked at his eyes. I called my wife, the kids, and their friends who were visiting and they all lined up to look through the eyepiece. After many "oohs" and "aahs", I focused on the tail. There, in the transparent part of the tail that surrounds the spinal column, one could see individual blood cells traveling out along arterioles to the tail margin, then back through venules to the main vessels. This poor tadpole obviously wasn't moving much at this point, but his circulatory system was well enough for us to get an excellent view of the wonders of creation.
These same amazingly complex microscopic processes are going on throughout our body 24 hours per day, every day for decades. Unfortunately, we seldom recognize the beauty of biology until something stops working correctly. Mysteries still far outweigh our knowledge when it comes to life, but ever since veterinary school I've felt priveleged to be in a profession that allows me to care for patients within the bounds of that knowledge. (Sometimes that means just not interfering with the body's ability to heal.)
