Monday, June 18, 2012

Cell division





Art of science: extremely small, incredibly close

Kuan-Chung Su, Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute

This striking, spiralling sequence was created using time-lapse photography to show the process of division – known as mitosis – of a cancer cell over a period of an hour. In the centre of the shot, the first stage of the process is captured, with the red DNA encircled by a near-perfectly round cell membrane. The DNA begins to duplicate, and to separate within the cyan enclosure. With the identical copies of DNA at opposite ends of the cell, gradually the membrane contracts. The subtle developments from one snapshot to the next follow the two daughter cells as they split away from one another, ready to undergo the same process themselves roughly 16 hours later

No comments:

Post a Comment