This discovery by Nobel prize winner Dr. Osama Shimomura known as Green Fluorescent has revolutionized molecular biology. Movement of living molecules generally can be seen but the advent of GFP made the invisible visible. The protein, found in jellyfish helps researchers track substances of all kinds, in real time, and show how they mark cells, maintain them and function in concert with other cells.
I met Geraint Parry on Twitter, where he tweets under @LiverpoolPlants about his research. Fortunately, my colleagues were able to confirm that he indeed is real and a plant cell biologist studying the nuclear pore complex. He also scored 6 out of 10 points from the “10 signs you might be a plant biologist” post, plus I awarded him two more points for having a picture of Arabidopsis thaliana as avatar. All evidence combined, Geraint immediately qualified as today’s Face of Plant Cell Biology – thanks for taking part, Geraint! :-)) Please check out Geraint’s website for more information and...
This post is part of the series “Faces of Plant Cell Biology”. In this series I am posting answers of plant cell biologists at all stages of their career to a set of five questions. If you are a plant cell biologist and would like to complete my questionnaire, please email me at anne@plantcellbiology.com. Seriously, please do – I am slowly but surely running out of colleagues to pester! Today’s Face of Plant Cell Biology is Dr Nathalie Leborgne-Castel from the Université de Bourgogne in France. Nathalie was kind enough to allow us to use her fantastic tomography and plasmolysis...
John Runions is a little bit like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – only that his two identities both have a Dr title. Most of his time he spends working, teaching and playing with the microscopes at Oxford Brookes University. But when nobody is watching, he puts on his cape of knowledge, takes his sword of science enthusiasm and leaps on air as “Dr Molecule” for BBC Radio Oxford. John’s website is like a little treasure chest, full with microscopy images and movies. You can even watch one of his presentations from the last GARNet meeting 2011 on YouTube...
It’s Friday and therefore I present you with two beautiful animations about the inner workings of a cell. Bring a packed lunch, your camera and a big bag of excitement and hop on the tour bus guiding you through an animal and a plant cell. “Over there you can see the world’s largest mitochondrion. Few people know that it was the inspiration for the Michelin man…” I hope that these videos will not only show you how complex and fascinating cells are, but also how much similarities there are between animal and plant cells. Cells rock!
I gotta feeling that this song’s gonna be a useful song… written by Mr Hsu to the music of the BlackEyed Peas.
This post is part of the new series “Faces of Plant Cell Biology”. In this series I am going to post answers of plant cell biologists at all stages of their career to a set of five questions. For obvious reasons I expect this to at first feature researchers which I know quite well, simply because I hope that they will be more willing to complete the questionnaire! However, by no means this should indicate an order of importance and I am very keen to feature as many researchers as possible. If you are a plant cell biologist and...
Have you ever wondered how things might look like inside your body, inside every tiny cell? Check out these stunning photo-realistic and interactive rendered “Cellular Landscapes” by Cell Signaling Technology. The image above shows the cellular landscape around a mitochondrion, which is also known as the “power station” of the cell because it produces energy. In the background you see the cytoskeleton, the cell’s “railway tracks”, transport vesicles and a lot of other important cell components. You can explore the cellular landscape in two ways: move your mouse over the image to find out more about individual structures and...
The Khan Academy is on a mission to provide free online educational resources for everyone, no matter if you are a student, teacher or “a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology”. With over 2700 videos available, they are doing very well! This blackboard-style video explains the different parts of a cell.
I am a big Etsy addict and could spend hours browsing the Treasury or bead suppliers. But most of all, I love discovering unique and unusual shops – just like “your friendly neighbourhood organ grinder“! Surely the only thing missing on your mantlepiece is this charming little Brain Invader Worm in its own little jar. If you prefer something more visually appealing, maybe this embroidered plant cell suits your taste better. It contains all the important small organs (or organelles) it needs to function properly. Or how about a plant cell brooch? Can you identify all...
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