Saturday: 7 October 2006
John Liebler of XVIVO, an animation company, has along with his colleagues created this animation. Working closely with Alain Viel and Robert Lue of Harvard University, they attain a near-unimpeachable degree of accuracy combined with lovely artistry. You are one-millionth or less your size, and you are here.
Darksyde at dKos presented us with this link to this most amazing animation. For me, who has seen 15 years of horrible, embarrassing “animations” of cellular activity, this one is an emotional experience.
I subsequently found it in higher resolution at this site. If it’s at all possible, scroll down a bit and view the high resolution link.
It’s an animation of what’s going on inside each of your trillions of cells every moment of every day. You are alive because of this. Glenn and I couldn’t help but watch this over and over again this morning. We recognize
But even if you don’t know of those things, it’s magnificent. It made me cry to watch it. My only regret is that it’s only 3 minutes long.
UPDATE: After some viewing I think that this isn’t just a series of pretty pictures. This is a real story. What we’re watching is the innards of helper T-cell activation. The lymphocyte crawling along the arteriole wall at the beginning has picked up a foreign signal, and has latched onto a macrophage through the T-cell receptors and major histocompatibility receptors. Then we dive into the cell, and the majority of the video shows the synthesis, sorting, and delivery of T-cell receptors, cytokines, and other proteins, and we finish with the now-alerted and activated lymphocyte slipping in-between the capillary wall cells on its way to trouble.
robin andrea - email - url
That’s a stunning animation. I understand the emotional response to watching all that amazing work going on inside every cell in our body. I still remember the first time I saw graphics of mitosis. I thought it was the most beautiful dance I’d ever seen, and anaphase just knocked me out. This animation is like that only a hundred times better! Great link, Wayne.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 11:04:23
Wayne - email - url
Robin - it was about 12 years ago that I first made the acquaintance of kinesin, that burly fellow who’s stepping along the microtubule carrying this enormous mass. It enraptured me then to think of “motor proteins”, and the visualization is perfect.
I sent the link to the biology professor who teaches about a thousand students every semester. I imagine she hasn’t seen it, but I suspect she’s going to weep like I did.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 11:16:11
Jenn - email - url
That’s amazing.
I don’t understand but a scrap of what I see there, but it’s fantastic. So much we don’t see.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 13:47:30
thingfish23 - email - url
Uh, yeah. What Jenn said. Awesome stuff, though, Wayne.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 13:49:43
Wayne - email - url
JennDjinn - I think I finally have it all down but one little section, but it took me two dozen viewings to do it. And even after that, I still say it’s rigorous, and I’m a hard nail. Not to mention that it’s wonderful to watch.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 13:51:34
Wayne - email - url
Brian - it’s much more sophistocated than I originally thought. They have it right down to the latest thoughts on circular RNAs. Golly. Not only that, of course, but it’s just beautiful to watch.
My own hero is the gallant kinesin motor protein. He’s even stepping in the exact way he should.
Saturday: 7 October 2006 @ 22:28:23
FloridaCracker - email - url
My 7th graders and I are “celling” now too, but probably not at the level you are. Thanks for the video link.
Catching up: Nice box turtle, they are so different around the country. Ours are still prettier than yours 
My Swamp Sunflowers are peaking now too and they are wonderful. Shorter than most years due to our very dry weather, but shining just the same.
Monday: 9 October 2006 @ 06:21:38
Wayne - email - url
FC - I tried it out on a few undergrads. They thought it was cool but were too cool to say much. I noticed one watching it again, later, while he was supposed to be doing something else.
Some of my boxts are pretty drab, but others, I think, could take away the Ms Boxt America prize from yours!
I was really glad to see we got at least *some* swamp sunflowers!
Tuesday: 10 October 2006 @ 05:32:30
Ross - email
Hello, thanks for the great notes on the animation. One thing I’d like to add is that the pattern of triangles are clathrin. Clathrin is a matrix protein that forms around pieces of membrane when they are to be endocytosed. You can find a little more info on the wikipedia (or cell biology text
Friday: 24 November 2006 @ 13:09:26
Lydia - email
Thank you so much for your description of the story! I found it because I was googling looking for a description / transcript after having seen the animation! I am a med student (so I should know this stuff, and will now have a beautiful vision of it) and I also found the video moving!
Friday: 8 December 2006 @ 23:34:16
Darthfather - email - url
It’s unbelievable! Looks like you’ve got some ideas for Disney next movies.
Wednesday: 7 March 2007 @ 12:06:45
Neil
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html
Close, but not quite. No clathrin in this video...clathrin is more often found on the outside of the golgi apparatus . Other proteins also mediate vesicle formation.
Monday: 12 March 2007 @ 04:18:01
Johannes
There is an 8-minute version of this clip, less
cinematic, but with a voiceover explaining
the details of what we see. This version also
demonstrates the power of a music soundtrack
compared to a scientist’s lecture.
While more informative, it’s only half as moving...
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/
(click on '8mins life of the cell)
Tuesday: 23 September 2008 @ 10:47:18
Wayne - email - url
Johannes - thanks for posting that link. I had an email exchange with one of the BioVisions producers after posting this (two years ago - has it really been that long??). She directed me to that longer, voiceover version.
The greater length is certainly nice, but I agree with you completely - the power of the music in the shorter version is very moving. And not just to me but also to my students. That surprised me a bit because of cultural divide - there are 30 years difference in our ages. Just another indication of how well that video was produced.
Tuesday: 23 September 2008 @ 11:00:47
