High maintenance items

Photography by Yae-Huei Liou

Materials and Methods

ZEISS LSM980 and cat Mimi

Description

Both items are lovely and cost a lot..

Seeing Gaia under the microscope

Artwork by Hannah Co, Sheng-hong Chen and Lab for Cell Dynamics, photography by Hannah Co

Materials and Methods

Cells expressing fluorescent membrane marker were cultured and imaged under Zeiss Axio Observer 7 inverted microscope under controlled temperature (37 °C), atmosphere (5% CO2), and humidity (90 - 100%). Images were taken every 15 minutes using a Zeiss 20x/0.8 M27 Plan-Apochromat objective.

Description

Microscope: Hey Gaia! How are you doing? 

Gaia: I am feeling wonderful! See, those migratory tracks are leaving information for cells to self-organize into magical patterns soon~ 

The Gaia hypothesis by James Lovelock (1972) postulates that “the Earth is maintained in a habitable state by self-regulating feedback mechanisms involving organisms tightly coupled to their environment.” In the cellular ecosystem, cells leave behind migratory tracks as a feedback mechanism to their neighbors. Cells gather this feedback from other cells to change their space exploration

Vibrant celebration of cell self-organization

Experiment and photography by Hanna K.C. Co, analysis and artwork by Jen-Hao Cheng 

Material and Methods

Human cells grown and self-organize for two days. Angles (colored based on -90 to 90 degrees) of cell orientation and alignment quantified using Q-tensor calculation on phase contrast image. Lines quantified by entropy.
Derivation of colors from cells see: https://photos.app.goo.gl/M6Zizn9cDKMLVgrWA

Description

Vibrant colors captures the large heterogeneity of spindle-shaped cells upon naturally occurring self-organization, vividly placing spotlight on the diversity and differences of individuals. Everyone is different. Still, each individual collectively aligns with their neighbors, celebrating individual differences as well as organization of community.