Exploring cell biology with my girlfriend
Feb 12, 2023 • 5:11 AM UTC
Cape Town, South Africa
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warwickpitman
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Despite my girlfriend, Michelle, studying architecture, she is the person I speak to most about my interest and passion for all things cell biology. Whether it is explaining why there isn’t a cure for cancer or how the mRNA Covid vaccine works, she is always a keen listener, but at times struggles to comprehend my explanations. This is primarily a result of her not being able to directly observe what I am trying to convey – you sometimes need to see things to understand them. Hence playing around with a foldscope I thought could help improve her understanding and interest in the micro-cosmos that constantly occupies my mind.
We decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood where I live within Cape Town and pick up some specimens that we could view with the foldscope. Below are some photos of us picking some flower specimens as well as myself collecting a sludgy water sample from a nearby marshland.
We decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood where I live within Cape Town and pick up some specimens that we could view with the foldscope. Below are some photos of us picking some flower specimens as well as myself collecting a sludgy water sample from a nearby marshland.
Next, we took the samples home with us, where we placed the specimens onto slides so that we could view them with my foldscope.
Michelle was quickly astonished and in awe of the world she had never observed before. I told her that the little circles that she was observing were each an individual cell that together make up the petal tissue. Even though we were only observing cells of a flower petal, the response Michelle had reminded me of the time I observed Sea Urchin eggs being fertilized in my first-year cell biology course. To fully understand the beauty of embryology I had to observe the division of an egg cell following fertilization into multiple cells that would subsequently develop into a complete organism over many more divisions. Synonymous with this was Michelle’s realization that the tissue that makes up the organs of plants or humans is made up of millions to trillions of individual cells.
The aim of collecting the sludgy water sample was to observe some micro-organisms. Michelle was particularly keen to see Tardigrades (water bears) as she had seen a video of these micro-organisms on Instagram. Sadly, we didn’t find any swimming around! Despite this, as can be seen in the image above on the right, we still obtained some beautiful pictures of the golden algae found in the water sample.
Overall, the experience of exploring cell biology with my girlfriend was not only fun but was also beneficial in that it improved her understanding of the building block of life – cells.
Overall, the experience of exploring cell biology with my girlfriend was not only fun but was also beneficial in that it improved her understanding of the building block of life – cells.
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