jtotheizzoe:

genannetics:

A Beautiful time-lapse of HeLa Cell Division

This simple, gorgeous image of a HeLa cell (the cancer cell line commonly used for cell biology) undergoing mitosis is my favorite photograph from the 2012 Wellcome Image Awards.  Imagine, every cell that make up you and I undergo the same process.  

This composite confocal micrograph uses time-lapse microscopy to show a cancer cell (HeLa) undergoing cell division (mitosis). The DNA is shown in red, and the cell membrane is shown in cyan. The round cell in the centre has a diameter of 20 microns.

By Kuan-Chung Su and Mark Petronczki, London Research Institute, Cancer Research UK

Just think: you began as two half-cells that became one, which then divided just like this, next to perfectly every time, until there were ~10 trillion cells in your body. Mighty mitosis.

hello, henrietta lacks, you’re looking very fine this evening