Biologists Weep for Joy

This inside-the-cell animation really does make biologists weep for joy:

Niches :: We Interrupt this Program: [I]t’s magnificent. It made me cry to watch it. My only regret is that it’s only 3 minutes long....

UPDATE: After some viewing I think that this isn’t just a series of pretty pictures. This is a real story. What we’re watching is the innards of helper T-cell activation. The lymphocyte crawling along the arteriole wall at the beginning has picked up a foreign signal, and has latched onto a macrophage through the T-cell receptors and major histocompatibility receptors. Then we dive into the cell, and the majority of the video shows the synthesis, sorting, and delivery of T-cell receptors, cytokines, and other proteins, and we finish with the now-alerted and activated lymphocyte slipping in-between the capillary wall cells on its way to trouble....

robin andrea: That’s a stunning animation. I understand the emotional response to watching all that amazing work going on inside every cell in our body. I still remember the first time I saw graphics of mitosis. I thought it was the most beautiful dance I’d ever seen, and anaphase just knocked me out. This animation is like that only a hundred times better! Great link, Wayne.

Wayne: Robin - it was about 12 years ago that I first made the acquaintance of kinesin, that burly fellow who’s stepping along the microtubule carrying this enormous mass. It enraptured me then to think of “motor proteins”, and the visualization is perfect. I sent the link to the biology professor who teaches about a thousand students every semester. I imagine she hasn’t seen it, but I suspect she’s going to weep like I did....