7/18/2006: Gallery of awesome biomedical images

Neatorama finds this tremendous gallery of award-winning bio images from 2006.

This particular shot, which Neatorama also highlighted, is of a cerebellar granule cell - a brain cell, grown in a lab. Wikipedia entry on cerebellar granule cells - they make up half the cells in the central nervous system. Those long tendrils reaching out? From what I can gather from the Wiki entry, they reach out and create connections with other brain cells.

Hard to say, I'm not a brain scientist. But the image is striking, as are many of the gallery. Such as



A mosquito in flight, engorged with blood



Bread mold



The surface of a stinging nettle leaf. It turns out all those prickers are little hypodermic needles! They don't just prick you, they INJECT. From the caption, The large stinging hairs are hollow tubes with walls of silica making them into tiny glass needles. The bulb at the base of each hair contains the stinging liquid, which includes formic acid, histamine, acetylcholine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin). The tips of the glassy hairs are very easily broken when brushed, leaving a sharp point, which can pierce the skin to deliver the sting.

These and all the other images are like Hubble images to me, but directed inward, not outward - microscopic, not telescopic.

And I guess another lesson is that there is beauty everywhere - even in annoying mosquitos, mold, and nettles.

I hate nettles, but that sure is a cool picture.

Not a tail so much as a process that extends out to make connections with other cells. These are neurons and like most neurons, they have axons and dendrites with which they make a network of contacts with other neurons. This clump is floating in a culture media. If it were in the brain it would organize itself into a dense group with lots of interconnections and connections with other types of neurons and it would also receive inputs and connections from other neurons.

cool. I wish I could afford an electron microscope. It's a whole other world.

Oh - yeouch, Bruce! Just the thought of that hurts all over. If you've ever touched a stinging nettle, you'd not even think that. But then, you say have acres of 'em...?

WAIT, wait wait just a gol-dern minute here...

Nettles is good eatin! I am not kidding. Next time you're out amonst them, by all means show respect for the upper surface of the leaves--those *hurt*. But if you can find some (above the local high urine mark of the area's biggest dogs) nice ones, younger smaller is better, grasp the leaf from the undersided, fold it shut so the upper surfaces face each other and fold, roll, compress, etc until you get a package small enough to eat, and pop it into your mouth! Delicious and nutritious. No kidding.

I've heard they are similar to artichokes in flavor and texture. But I've never tried either.

But what does a STEM cell look like?

Stem cell.

Don't try the nettle eating thing if you are at all sensitive to histamine. You don't have to be stung by them to get too much of it. For those who think they are allergic to shellfish, some are actually allergic to the histamine that is present when the shellfish start to "age" a bit.

Nettles make great soup. Gather about two or three carrier bags full of young leaves (before the plant starts to flower). Fry a little onion (don,t you always for a soup?), add a couple of litres of water or light stock (chicken, vegetable ...), fling in the leaves and boil away. Run through a liquidiser if you like. Add nutmeg and/or sour cream to taste. Yum.

liquidiser == juicer? interesting. yes, onions are good for all soup bases it seems. I'll have to try that at camp next week. I'm sure I can find beaucoup nettles.

Bruce you have some MONSTER nettles! The ones over here don't grow past 12" before flowering.

Never had nettle soup, but drink nettle tea nearly every day in the summer. Of course I get it from the health food shop, so I get stung in another way when I pick it!

Nettles are good in the compost heap as well.

What's the surface that stem cell is attached to?

A human soul.