Pretty as a picture

We are watching 'Art That Made Us' - the BBC series that highlights the contempirary relevance of art that was provoked by major social and political upheavals during Britain's history. The Beeb at its best: provocative, inclusive, intelligent, moving and beautifully filmed. Co-incidentally, the episode we saw today included the work of Robert Hooke - a polymath who was a pioneer of microscopy and published a book of beautiful, accurate drawings of the things he saw through his lenses. The work, with the remarkably modern-sounding title of 'Micrographia', expanded people's understanding of the natural world. One of the most famous drawings is a highly detailed picture of a flea

Flushed with my success in capturing moving grass yesterday, I tried my luck with these creatures - capturing a little less detail than Robert Hooke! They are 'water fleas' - a term that is applied to several species of small aquatic crustaceans. These ones are Daphnia, but the cyclops that I saw in the pond also get that title

The cyclops that were doing such a good job of keeping the pond clear of 'blanket weed' (filamentous algae - the picture shows some filaments) suffered a massive population collapse and the algae has returned;  I'm not sure why. I was worried I might have unknowingly introduced something toxic - a hypothesis this experiment in a Bonne Maman jam-jar is designed to test. MrsM found these Daphnia in a trug of water I had set aside, so I have put some of them in the jar with water drawn from the pond. More than a day later they are in the rudest of health

My next theory is that the population built up to such an extent that it deoxygenated the water - notwithstanding the oxygenating plants I have put in there. I have ordered a small, solar, oxygenating pump. When it is installed, I'll try transfering in some of these Daphnia, and also see if the population of cyclops recovers. Trial and error, as Robert Hooke would understand