colours
A view through the confocal microscope; the protein tubulin has been tagged with GFP, a fluorescent marker, which fluoresces under laser excitation to reveal, in this instance, the expression pattern of the protein within the region of the apical meristem of an Arabidopsis thaliana seedling.
Gathering in London Soho for Soho Pride.
This week, a titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, came into flower in the Cambridge Botanic garden; this is the first time that the species has flowered in the United Kingdom outside of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The specific epithet amorphophallus refers to the central spadix of the arum, and essentially means amorphous phallus, or shapeless penis. It is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, but is not the world's largest flower.
Fortunately, no human penis, shapeless or otherwise, will ever smell quite so unpleasant as this one does. Unless you really do know of a man whose groin attracts carrion flies.
A birthday party is held in London; it is among the most memorable I've ever been to; there are few things more wonderful than being cooped up in a room containing almost all of your dearest friends; relaxed, fun, no agendas, no awkwardness, no playing of emotions; it can only be happy and comfortable, and makes a nice change. (collage size 720 kb)
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Pretty.
wow. what a party. You are glowing.
Science questions (sorry): Is that a shoot meristem? Is it possible to see the true apex in shoot meristem? (I'm used to seeing pics of floral meristems in journals) What is the yellow coloration - absence of tubulin? If so, why is it absent? Why the bright green spots - are they just artifacts? As I said, sorry about the science questions but I'm curious.
Yes very pretty. Oh hello and who would the tall blonde in the center be then?
Gak! How on earth could I possibly entertain the posting of science questions on here?!
(recomposes self)
Technically, no; what you can see are the initials (first true leaves) emerging from the meristematic region, flanked here by the two cotyledons. It is possible to see the true apex of the shoot meristem, but this is best done by embedding the apex in historesin and taking fine sections - it's easily missed - though it can be done on a confocal with careful manipulation.
I assigned orange as the colour to represent the emission spectra, reduced the gain and high voltage and increased the offset so that only the brightest regions of fluorescence were obvious, and that's what you see here. The spots are artefacts of chlorophyll autofluorescence, which I had going in a second detection channel, and the red background is the third channel set to a high gain. The picture is of little scientific value; I was test driving a prospective purchase, and just wanted something colourful to take home when I was winding down my explorations!
In re: the pretty comments; ta! Ed, the tall blonde is the third and final German to feature in all the photos. As the caption suggests, the Germans I know certainly are pretty; it's a freakish set of coincidental circumstances.
See! It wasn't that hard, was it!? ;-)
I'll resist the temptation to ask any follow up questions. I wasn't thinking clearly (too early in the am) as I should have realised the difference between sections in the EM and a 3D picture from confocal microscopy. Nevertheless it was a pretty picture. It's really cool that you have the opportunity to play with high tech toys for your Ph.D.
And I liked all your party pics, too!
I had a similar crazy weekend... but with one Brit, one Canadian, and one sexy Philly boyfriend ;) ... you obviously spread the love a bit further around... you make me jealous... I MISS LONDON!!! I need to get back soon ;)
partyyyy...!! :D
oh hi. i am now a little scared of exactly two (4) people in these photos but will not say who because i am a very nice person. thank you.
yay ... new people to meet when I move (less than a few months away)
Seems like you have been having fun!