Morning in Laboratory with Professor Nick Talbot

Spent the morning with Nick Talbot (molecular biologist who runs Singer Washington Laboratory). He gave me an unexpected introduction to the dynamic and stunningly beautiful world of cell biology. In previous visits to the laboratory my response had been focussed on the environment. Nick showed me some of the images that are produced through the use of the technology used in the lab. To see examples, journals such as The Journal of Cell Biology, The Plant Cell, and Current Biology, all show high quality sequences of cell activity.

Activity is revealed through dyes used as markers, these used to be artificial colours and give a particular aesthetic quality to the images produced. More recently naturally fluorescent substance, extracted from, for example, jellyfish, is tagged onto genes in order to track their movement. (Is it possible to get hold of any of this?)

Image sources:

Nemarski Image: the use of a kind of raking light in a microscope which creates an image that shows relief.

RADS (Nick gave me several of these to be used in my own image experimentation.) Steve Hughes has said it is worth contacting Steve Aves for early auto rad images made with ruler and pencil.

Real time moving images of cellular/genetic activity.

Focal microscopy: these are optical planes cross-sectioned through sample. For example, a 1000 or so images can be taken and used to create what appears as a 3D reconstruction. These images had extraordinary beauty, shimmering, luminescent, a little like a firework display.

It might be possible to get hold of a CD of moving cell images / gene activity from Nick Reed at Edinburgh University.

RAD Scanned and colours manipulated



RAD Scanned and colours manipulated