How did this project get started?

Once upon a summer in 2011, Dr. Sindy Tang and Dr. Wallace Marshall met at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Lab, and something amazing started! Dr. Wallace was like a detective, studying a tiny cell called Stentor. He told Dr. Sindy a super cool secret – you can cut this cell in half, and ta-da, you get two working cells! Now, Dr. Sindy, who loves thinking about tiny machines, was already dreaming about micromachines that can heal themselves. Guess what? She even named her son after a magical gemstone that's all about healing!

When Dr. Sindy heard about Stentor's incredible power, she thought, "Wow, this tiny cell knows something super awesome!" Engineers and scientists have been wishing for ages to make machines that can heal themselves, but they're not even close. Imagine this – breaking your phone in half, and suddenly, you have two phones! How cool would that be? So, Dr. Sindy decided she must learn more about this fantastic cell. And that's how the adventure with Dr. Wallace began – exploring the secrets of Stentor (and other cells) together!

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank a lot of people who contributed to the content and the design of the website, including: Seesha Takagishi, Ambika Nadkarni, Kevin Zhang, Ramon Rodriguez, Daniel Knapp, Nicolas Castano, and Shailesh Kumar.