Embedded Files
Microscopes are indispensable instruments in biological sciences. We are living in an era where it is even possible to visualise molecules at atomic resolution. This has been made possible by electron microscopes. Electron microscopes are conventionally divided into two types: transmission electron microscopes (TEM) and scanning electron microscopes (SEM). Cryoelectron microscope is an advanced version of TEM. We can solve complex protein structures and perform high resolution tomography using cryoelectron microscope. I got expertise of working on electron microscopes while working as DST Nanomission Research Fellow at AIIMS, New Delhi. At ICAR-IARI, New Delhi I worked on the biosystematics of moths as DST SERB Research Fellow and learnt the importance of microscopes in taxonomic studies. Microscopes are fascinating!
A Telamonia dimidiata spider preying upon a wasp moth.
The Ceraunus blue butterfly photographed by me. It is also very small in size, around one or two centimetres only.
The Lime Blue butterfly from our college botanical garden. This butterfly is very small in size, only a centimetre or two.
The giant Indian Moon Moth, Actias selene.
The "spider hunter" black-and-yellow mud dauber parasitoid wasp (Sceliphron species) as photographed by me from our botanical garden: The black and yellow mud daubers are solitary parasitoid wasps that build nests out of mud. After building a cell of the nest, the female wasp captures several spiders. The captured prey are stung and paralyzed before being placed in the nest, and then a single egg is deposited on the prey within each cell. The wasp then seals the cell with a thick mud plug. After finishing a series of cells, she leaves and does not return. While consuming the prey and increasing in size, the larva molts several times, until it molts into a pupa. Once the pupa has developed into an adult wasp, the adult emerges from its pupal case and breaks out of its mud chamber.
Eggs of a kleptoparasitic fly (Milichiidae) as photographed by me from our college botanical garden. These "thief flies" surreptitiously feast upon prey captured by other predators like spiders. These flies detect the chemicals released by an injured prey and rush towards it for party. Waiting in the vicinity of the "host" for an opportunity to exploit its resources is more energy efficient and less dangerous than foraging among hosts. In extreme cases, flies may become long-term phoretic associates that travel with hosts even while the latter in flight. Flies associated with predators are mostly female.
Bee mimicry alert! An inaccurate bee mimicking harmless hover fly Eristalinus species from my collection of mimics with emerald like green crystalline eyes which change colour to red when looked from different angles. Magic in the ommatidia!
Dedicated to the Nobel Prize 2023 in Chemistry: Vibrantly coloured Quantum Dots, synthesised by us at Nanotechnology Lab, Department of Anatomy, SAIF-Electron Microscopy Facility, AIIMS, New Delhi
Male and female cones of Cycas from our college campus.
I photographed a pair of beautiful metallic jewel bugs basking in sunlight at our college botanical garden. Note that these look like beetles but these are bugs (not beetles).
One winter afternoon, I was exploring Son river bank along with a friend. I witnessed a small pool of water filled with algal blooms which appeared blood red during afternoon. While returning after two hours from our exploration in the evening, we saw something unusual. We saw that the algal blooms which appeared blood red in the afternoon just two hours ago had become green in the evening and had spread over the entire water surface of the pond which was earlier confined more at the centre. After going through various research papers and extensive mind boggling interactions with different experts, I came to know that what I just witnessed was nothing but a live demonstration of Chromatic Adaptation which is also known as Gaidukov Phenomenon. In Gaidukov phenomenon, the cyanobacteria or blue green algae change colour with respect to different wavelengths of light. These algae may also migrate up and down to adjust with the light intensity. If we look at the molecular level, we would find that there is a structure called phycobillisome present in these cyanobacteria which consists of three types of phycobillin protein complexes which produce different colours in combination with chlorophyll. These are phycoerythrin (red), phycocynin (blue) and allophycocynin (light blue). When light intensity is more, phycoerythrin is produced in larger amounts producing red colouration while under low light conditions, its synthesis drops dramatically leading to green colouration. Surprisingly, this interesting transition occurs so fast. From literature, I have found that some protists also exhibit this phenomenon.
I had a chance to get my hands on this magnificent machine. This is the newly installed Focussed Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM) at AIIMS, New Delhi. Credit goes to my previous supervisor Prof. Subhash Chandra Yadav, AIIMS, New Delhi for acquiring this sophisticated instrument for Sophisticated Advanced Instrumentation Facility (SAIF), AIIMS, New Delhi. He has been a visiting faculty at Stanford University as well. I was working as a DST Nanomission Fellow under his supervision before joining as an Assistant Professor in Bihar. This facility is one of its kind in India (and most probably in Asia as well).
The Human Genome Project: In this photograph, I am holding a hardcopy of the landmark 2001 issue of prestigious Nature magazine at our college library in which first draft of the complete Human Genome was published. The Human Genome Project is considered one of the greatest scientific feats in history.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse