Dr. Jansen has previously demonstrated that a compound microscope can be used to magnify the appearance of objects and many susequent research studies have used this device to visualize and analyze both human and non-human cell types under various magnifications. However, no study has thouroughly investigated if the presence of a single human cell can indeed be detected using this device.  Here, we thoroughly investigate if a single human cell can be definitely detected using a compound microscope.  A human fibroblast was cultured overnight in a gelatin coated dish containing Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM, Invitrogen) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Invitrogen), 100 IU/ml penicillin-streptomycin (Invitrogen) and cultured at 37ºC in a 5% Sanyo CO2 incubator.  Following overnight adhesion the dish containing the cell was placed on a Leica DMIL stereomicroscope with a mounted color digital camera and a digital photo of the observed image was recorded (see Figure 1).

The recorded digital photo (see Figure 1) exactly matched the image observed down the eye piece of the compound microscope.  The microscope was checked for the presence of devices or electronics that may be artificially projecting an image of a cell through the eyepiece exactly as the dish was placed on the microscope and none was found. When this dish was moved around in random circular patterns the image down the eye piece matched these movements exactly and without detectable lag. 

The same image and lag-free movement was also observed on two other compound microscopes, providing additional empirical evidence against the artificial eyepiece image projection hypothesis.  The cell in the image was morphologically similar to other human fibroblasts that have been viewed independently by other researchers on other compound microscopes, suggesting that this cell was indeed a human fibroblast.  Next we considered if the presence of the cell viewed in the eye piece could be definitely proven.  It was considered that the researcher could be dreaming the entire experience, however several painful pinches did not cause the researcher to wake up.  However, the pinch methodology may be ineffective to re-attain consciousnous in a third-party created consciousness, such as a Matrix-style artifical universe or Descartes’ brain in a vat. This researcher was unable to find any other methodologies to provide conclusive proof against these hypothetical possibilities, and the only blue pill this researcher has heard of provides somewhat more of a physical than meta-physical stimulation. The conclusion of this study is that a compound microscope can not be used to conclusively detect or even prove the existence of a single human cell.

Heiler Kee (HK) and Chloe Salmon (CS) are 8-month old (+/- 16 days) Homo sapiens infants.  However, despite their similarity in age, it is unclear whether they possess the same alertness towards a camera.  In order to quantify their degree of camera alertness, HK and CS were placed adjacent to each other, and candid photographs of them (n = 4) were taken using a Nikon D60 camera with a 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens.  Our results indicated that CS did not make eye contact with the camera during the duration of the experiment (Fig. 1).  In contrast, HK was observed to look directly into the camera in 50% of the photographs (Fig. 1C & 1D).  This data indicate that HK is more alert to the presence of a camera than CS (p < 0.05), suggesting that HK may potentially find interest in a future career of modeling.