For night 30 of #31NightsofHalloween #MicrosCreepy, here are some amoebae squished under a jello-like pad. The flashes you see are contractile vacuole pumping events-- this organelle colllects and expels water (like bailing water out of a boat!)

For night 28 of #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy,
IT'S ALIVE! These are reanimated cell "ghosts," which are cells that have had their membranes/cytoplasm washed away, leaving the cytoskeleton behind. Adding ATP activates myosin motors, which causes contraction!

28/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy A flagellate cell stained for microtubules

23/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy
Here is some actin cytoskeleton staining of cells crawling into microchannels.

22/#31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Dissolving crystals from an old, dried-up sample

21/#31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Naegleria are crawling amoebae most of the time, but when stressed, they can grow two flagella (same structure as sperm tails) to swim away. This cell was stained for microtubules, which form flagella and an extensive network in the cell body beneath the plasma membrane.

20/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy
amoeba pumpkin!

18/ #31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
Here's an amoeba imaged by scanning electron microscreepy!