Under a microscope

When I was 10 years old, I received a microscope for Christmas. What magic! It revealed a hidden world of exotic tiny living protozoa along with many other mysterious creatures.

Some microscopic discoveries I made were of an earthworm whose multi-chamber heart was still beating—though it had been dead and pickled in formaldehyde for months. My college biology teacher didn’t believe it until he and many other students actually witnessed it themselves.

Recently I killed an eccentric flying insect in my house. Under the microscope it proved to be the deadly Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. It has striped legs and is a carrier of West Nile virus, dengue, eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis and LaCrosse encephalitis, chikungunya virus, and the Zika virus.

People should use insect repellent containing DEET to help keep mosquitoes away. I’m still searching local ponds and creeks for that insidious brain-eating microscopic blob, the amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

TOM KNIGHT Little Rock