Friday, September 29, 2006

Video of the day: Cellular Visions


I thought I was in no mood to update the blog tonight, since there was a massive traffic jam on the way back from work and I had to spend THREE AND A HALF HOURS trawling over obscure parts of the motorway -- almost reaching LONDON, lost, hungry and with only half a gauge of fuel remaining (no mood to be optimistic tonight, hehehe).

That was until I had a look at this video: Cellular Visions - The Inner Life of a Cell.
[click the video link, Flash player required]

If there was an Oscar for web videos, I would put my vote behind this one. I am still picking my jaw from the floor - it is simply amazing and a must see especially if you (i) like biology (ii) are a medical student (iii) interested in science.

The video is a high definition 3D rendered animation of the internal organs/micro machines in a cell working dynamically to maintain cell functions.

I had (traumatic) flashbacks of biochemistry and physiology (argh, Ganong!) throughout watching this video.

Highly recommended.

Ps
  1. Enjoy!
  2. Challenge: Try and name as many organelles, proteins and processes as possible - see how many you could recognise!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Masih dial up so probably will watch it when I get broadband.

Ganong??? Nooooooooo!!!! (nightmare sungguh buku tu. I preferred Tortora)

dith said...

Mynn,

Subhanallah! Exquisitely animated I daresay! Kudos to the medical animators for having such splendid deftness in interpreting the academic data into fluid visual.

The whole realm looks as though it belonged to the deep sea world! But could there be perhaps some exageration in some parts? I am refering to the 'walking' structure? :p. I especially loved that last part when a ?phagocyte creeped in between the cells???

Btw, I thought I was the only one who found and still finds Ganong, 'blarggghhh! Even Sarah chosed a different author when she did physiology. Why can't they make it more friendly eh? hehe

And for someone who is no mood after being caught in a massive jam after work, you sure can 'surf' high! hehe

pycnogenol said...

Now what was that all about???

I loved the music though....

I'll watch it again, later.

Ikelah said...

when i first saw the image, racing thought in my head, "you can shoot something like that in UK? what is that really? amazing photo. is he using a macro lens now?" as i read further down,"oooooooo...." after watching the clip, "macam matrix je". i guess that an appriopiate answer to pycno... anggap macam tengok cerita matrix remaking part ship dia kena kejar oleh xyz???

i agree that it is an impressive video. the kids or medical student should watch it for it might make them understand better than just staring at mr ganong's writings.

back to photography, that is the sort of image that will pull everybody's attention. that is the image that we try to produce and make other photographers start to ask questions of the equipment and techniques. pheww... i really thought it was done by 400d initially.

thanks for sharing.

mynn said...

ikelah
LOL reading your comment, hehehe. however, in a journal club recently there was a discussion about this small camera they are putting inside a teflon coated tablet that you could swallow to capture pictures of your gut. how cool!

pycno
hehehe:) i like the music too, really enhanced the experience. the video is about all the nano machines in our cells working to keep us alive. What's fascinating about it pycno, is that it's like our textbooks was suddenly made into a movie. it's amazing.

dith
you reacted just like me watching the video, i went "subhanallah" all the way through too:)

KKL
most of us seem to have nightmares reading Ganong it seems eh? im sorry to say, i used Ganong while in medical school. what took others just one day to read would took me weeks:) if you get access to a faster connection do have a look:) the video is fascinating.

glad you guys like the video. later everyone:)