Please help me!!!! (its about soil)?

Question

Hi! I've just finished my science fair experiment; it's about soil microorganisms. I read on a website that you can't view soil under a normal (compound light) microscope, if you do you will break the objective. Is this true? And if so, what kind of microscope do you need to view soil?

Answer 1

You need a scope called a dissecting scope to look at soil. The school biology lab should have one. However, dissecting scopes are not powerful enough to see most microbes.

If you want to examine the microbes in the soil, you will still need a regular compound microscope. You can extract the microbes from the soil by pouring a soil sample in a beaker, and adding an inch of water. Mix the soil and water by shaking the beaker, then add about 1/8 teaspoon of sugar. The sugar causes the microbes to remain suspended in the water, while letting most of the soil settle out. Let it sit a few minutes until the soil settles. You can then use a medicine dropper to place drops of water into a concave microscope slide to view it under a compound microscope. The concave slides would also allow you to view small amounts of soil under a compound scope without extracting microbes, but there might be too much turbidity to see through the sample.