Over the last century; one organelle inside a cell was ignored for the longest time – the primary cilia. It sticks out of the cell and only now do we understand remarkable number of motor and sensory functions it performs. Although now believed to be present in every eukaryotic cell (in human body; primary cilia are belived to be present in almost every cell); cilia play a fundamental role in functioning of almost every metazoan (animals – including us) and malfunction is associated with various disease states (ciliopathies – including polycycstic kidney disorder).

For more detailed view on human diseases; see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-scientists-are-blaming-cilia-for-human-disease/

So I am always thrilled whenever I can get functioning cilia under my foldscope. Here is a great example of coordination and synchronization of cilia using my foldscope (140X) and my phone with high speed camera (240 fps). Cilia beat really fast (ranging from 10 to 50 times a second) and thus seeing them requires a high speed camera.

I caught a Tornaria larvae (around 90 days old) from a hemichordate species. The larvae itself were a wonder (almost a little rocket ship) – and I will post a detailed account of the behavior of the larvae – but I could not resist myself to post a quick high speed video of ciliary synchronization.

Watch the traveling wave along the ciliary band – with out of phase beating between cilia and a specific length scale that naturally arises. Just a thing of beauty.

Cheers

Manu

Ps: here is a picture to give you all a teaser of the diversity of organisms to come in upcoming posts – here is what the sea table looked like. A tiny glimpse of the Dev bio course by Chris Lowe and Nat Clarke at Hopkins Marine station. I will also share techniques of how you can spawn and maintain your own marine creatures.