That's a daphnia, also known as a water flea. Their "skins" are almost transparent, so they're perfect for exploration under a microscope; you can even see their little hearts beating. Apparently they also respond well to stimulants and depressants, making for some cool experiments with alcohol and amphetamines.
They also make great fish food, so I'm wondering if I can get some at Petco and play with them under the school microscopes surreptitiously. They look like they would make fun pets either way; I used to love sea monkeys when I was little (brine shrimp).
At the Science Olympiad Regional Tournament last weekend, (which we won, by the way) I got to use the nicest microscope I had ever seen. All of the knobs were intuitive; I reached under the stage and they were exactly where I expected them to be. Instead of trying to scoot the slide around manually, there was a metal mechanism that moved it smoothly with the turn of a knob. It could also magnify to a much higher degree than I had ever personally seen, so I had fun playing with the slide of various muscle tissue they gave me.
I wonder why I can never sleep. I'm exhausted all day, and then when sleep becomes the normal thing to do, at a reasonable time, everything else suddenly becomes much more important.
So it goes.
